Setting Sail
by bluedragon03
Summary: A collection of short stories written for my dear friend for her birthday! (May 17) I hope that you enjoy it, and be sure to leave her birthday well wishes in the comment section! Hooray! Includes: Gajevy, Jerza, and NaLu one-shots. Enjoy! (Spoilers through chapter 430)
1. Skeletons and Ball Gowns

***A/N- Hello My Dearest Love! Welcome to your super duper amazing birthday present! By now you have probably realized that this isn't technically what you asked for. You asked for a fanfic, but I wrote you a COLLECTION of them, because I'm just that nice :P. I put a lot of work into ordering and editing these so that it would be a flowing, cohesive collection. You have to take it in order, or you won't get the full effect, sorry! :D. I hope you enjoy it!**

 **This fic was actually inspired by another that I read on tumblr, and I can't remember who posted it, or I'd credit them! Also, I'm posting this a day early without telling her so that there will be some birthday wishes in the comment section, so don't let me down! Be sure to stop by her tumblr if you like fandom/feminist/random blogs at: blankpagesemptyspace**

 **I do not own Fairy Tail**

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"Hey Lucy!" Natsu cried, slinging his arm around her neck, "We found a job request that you'll love! Your share could pay your rent for ages!"

"Really?" Lucy asked excitedly, snatching the request flier out of his hands. She started reading it excitedly, but as her eyes scanned the paper, she got progressively paler, until she put the flier down, looking like she was going to be sick.

"No." She said simply.

"What?" Natsu asked incredulously. "Are you crazy Lucy? Did you see the reward?"

"No. I'm not doing this job, you, Gray, and Erza will just have to do this one without me. Take Wendy. I'm not coming."

"Why not? You're always bellyaching' about not having rent money, and here's a job for you on a silver platter that will pay your rent for months!"

"I'll find another job, but I'm not doing this one."

"C'mon, Lucy," Gray said, coming up on her other side, "what's up?"

"I just don't want to do this job!" She exclaimed, throwing Natsu's arm off of her and stalked out of the door.

"Don't worry," Natsu said to him, "I'll convince her." He and Happy followed Lucy out the door. "C'mon Happy," Natsu said, "Let's beat Lucy to her place."

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Lucy walked in the door and screamed in indignation. Natsu was reclining on her couch like he owned the place. He waved in a very predictable amiable manner and greeted her brightly.

"Natsu, how did you get here before me?" She demanded. Natsu got to his feet and stepped right into Lucy's personal space. He slung his arm around her shoulders again, but Lucy just rolled her eyes.

"C'mon, Luce. What's up? You know your rent is due soon and you are totally broke again!" Lucy ducked out from underneath his arm and walked over to her desk. She busied herself with straightening Gonzales's clothes and arranging her hair so it no longer hung in her face. Natsu was tactful enough to give her space while she fussed with her "little sister" but as soon as she could no longer excuse fooling with her any longer, Natsu slung his arm back around her shoulder.

It took a great deal of begging, pleading, personal space invasions, and just a little bit of crying, but Lucy eventually agreed to come, very reluctantly.

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The entire ride to the job, Lucy was on edge. Every time someone walked by she would cover her face or turn away. Gray and Erza asked what was wrong, but she refused to tell them. Natsu was moaning and groaning the entire way, and Lucy was tense and quiet, making for a very awkward ride for the other two.

Lucy stared out the window the entire journey, even ignoring Natsu when he rolled over to her and moaned loudly in her ear. She merely shoved him off without a word. Erza and Gray watched her, concerned, but didn't say anything. They thought it would be best to leave her to her thoughts when she was like this, and they were right. She was thinking about the job, and what would happen when she met with the client.

The client, Duke Sawarr Junelle, was a disgusting, sweaty man who made Lucy's skin crawl by just being in the same room with him. She hadn't wanted to see him again, which is why she'd initially refused to come, but she was unable to withstand Natsu's begging for very long. She'd given in, hoping that he wouldn't recognize her, but that was impossible. Maybe the wealth gap between them would scare him away?

When the train stopped and Gray dragged Natsu off, Lucy and Erza following behind, Erza leaned over to whisper in Lucy's ear.

"Are you alright? You don't have to do this job, I won't let Natsu give you hell about it if you want to turn back now." Lucy seriously considered this. It was obvious that Erza understood what was going on, even if the boys didn't. It was impossible that she would know exactly what was going through Lucy's mind, but Erza understood enough. Lucy felt a wave of gratitude wash over her, but she shook her head.

"I'll be fine," she said. _I hope,_ she thought. "I have to face my fears sometime." Erza gave her a perplexed look, then shrugged.

"As long as you're sure," she said.

Natsu was revived soon after leaving the train, and he joked and laughed loudly the entire walk to the Duke's mansion. Natsu insisted on walking because he didn't want to ride in another vehicle, and Lucy agreed for once because she wanted to put off the inevitable of seeing him again. She needed time to mentally prepare herself. After a long walk where Lucy was, once again, almost completely silent, the familiar wrought iron gates peaked up above the tree line, and Lucy knew they were almost there. Unconsciously, she pressed closer to Natsu, who was on her right.

"What's the matter, Lucy?" He asked, for the sixteenth time that day.

"Nothing," she replied, her voice sounding far away.

She hesitated briefly before stepping over the threshold into the Duke's estate, already imagining the feeling of his eyes boring into her. She mentally shook herself, then hurried after her friends, not wanting to be separated from the group. She stuck closer than usual to Natsu, who noticed her strange behavior, and didn't say anything. He'd finally understood that there was something wrong, something that Lucy didn't want to talk about, so he let her walk pressed up against him. Not that he would have been complaining anyway. He liked being close to Lucy.

They sat down in the client's living room, all of them looking around curiously at their surroundings, except for Lucy, who seemed strangely familiar with them. She nodded at a few of the servants stationed at doors, who nodded back, looking confused, like they weren't sure how to act around her. Natsu didn't see what was so confusing. Lucy was just a person, just like they were, so why couldn't they greet her like a person? Lucy was practically sitting in his lap now, her entire right side was smushed up against him, she had even went as far as to tuck her shoulder behind his so that she was partially concealed from view.

Sensing her discomfort, Gray reached over and patted her knee. The gesture seemed to strengthen her in some way, and she scooted away from Natsu just a little so that she was more in the middle of the two of them, although her leg and arm remained pressed against his.

"Lucy Heartfilia?" Asked a voice from the doorway. Lucy jumped violently, and grabbed Natsu's hand in hers. "Is that really you?" Natsu looked over at Lucy, who had her eyes closed and seemed to be building up her resolve for something. With one final squeeze to his hand she stood and faced the client.

"Duke Junelle," she said in a proper voice. Natsu didn't like that voice, it wasn't like Lucy at all, too gentle and sweet, almost submissive, which wasn't the Lucy he knew at all. Lucy was supposed to be loud and obnoxious, not quiet and respectful. "How wonderful it is to see you." The Duke didn't seem to notice the way that the word _wonderful_ seemed forced, like Lucy was choking on it.

"It _is_ you!" He said, striding across the room and grasping her shoulders. She flinched ever so slightly as he bumped his sweaty upper lip against her hand. Lucy wiped her hand off on her skirt at the first opportunity. "Certainly there is no need for _you_ to address me so."

When she sat back down between Gray and Natsu, Natsu noticed that she was trembling slightly, although she was now sitting up as straight as a board and she wasn't touching either of them.

"I must say, I didn't expect it to be _you_ that answered my job request." The tone in his voice told her that that was _exactly_ what he had expected. Lucy forced herself to smile and act proper, falling into her old habits without meaning to.

"I was surprised to see that you'd put in a request at a wizards guild."

"Yes well, I am transferring a rather large amount of money by carriage, and I believe that it needs more protection than what an average person can provide."

"Well then you're in luck," Lucy said proudly, "we're Fairy Tail's strongest team!" Duke Junelle looked at the rest of Lucy's team for the first time since they arrived, the disdain plain on his face.

"Yes, well," he began derisively, "I am so relieved that _you_ are here at least. The amount being transferred is most likely more money than your friends here have seen in their entire lives. It will be some comfort to know that you are there watching it." Lucy smiled painfully, forcing her lips not to falter into the grimace they were so desperate to form.

"Your money will be in good hands," is all she said.

"Indeed," he said, "and what beautiful hands they are!" He commented, and this time Lucy was unable to hold back her cringe, as she knew where this conversation was headed. She allowed herself to sit back against the couch that both of her shoulders were brushing one of the boys'. Having this reminder that they were there with her was a comfort.

"You haven't aged one day since I last saw you! I heard some rumor about you and the rest of that guild of yours being stuck in another dimension or something like that, and I must say that I didn't believe it, although it seems like it would have to be true, looking at you now."

The desire was so evident in his beady little eyes that even Natsu saw it, and pressed a little closer to Lucy protectively. Lucy was grateful for Natsu presence, although she didn't allow herself to show weakness, men like Duke Junelle prayed on the weaknesses of women in order to get what they wanted.

"And watching you in the Grand Magic Games, what a horrible and barbaric competition. The way you were beaten and humiliated on national Lacrima Vision like that," he said, and she felt all of her friends stiffen furiously. Natsu was about ready to pounce, and was only held back by her hand on his knee.

"I'm surprised to hear that you watched the Grand Magic Games," Lucy said.

"Oh I only did because I heard your guild would be participating, and that you and your friends might be there, and I have no idea why anyone would put themselves through that. The way that you lost to that red haired one-"

"That fight was sabotaged by Raven Tail," Natsu growled, deadly quiet. He barred his fangs at Duke Junelle, who sat back quickly in his chair, startled.

"Well certainly I don't see how, there were judges there to catch that sort of thing," he said, obviously too stupid to know when to keep his mouth shut. Natsu began to speak, but Lucy held out a hand to stop him. He growled loudly and sat back in his chair, glaring daggers at the Duke.

"It doesn't matter anymore, all of that is in the past," Lucy said brightly.

"Yes but, a delicate woman like you shouldn't be putting yourself through something like that, I mean, the way that brute of a woman from that Saber Tooth beat you." Natsu growled loudly again, signaling his distaste for this topic as well. "It was embarrassing to watch."

"I don't see anything embarrassing about what happened to me in the Grand Magic Games. I fought with pride for my guild, and there is nothing embarrassing about that," Lucy said forcefully. Duke Junelle looked slightly surprised at her tone, and her sudden change in posture. In the space of a sentence she changed from the rich debutante that Duke Junelle had known, into the formidable Lucy Heartfilia, Celestial Mage of Fairy Tail.

"Well, of course, but still," Lucy leaned back and looked down her nose at the Duke. The tables had turned, she was in control of the situation now. She let the duke prattle on helplessly before gradually allowing his voice to fade away.

"I am glad that you chose to make your request with Fairy Tail," Lucy said, standing.

"Actually, I must confess that I told a small lie at the beginning of this meeting. I did, in fact put in a request at Fairy Tail with the hope that you would be the one to respond." Lucy wasn't fazed by this bit of information. She'd known it all along. What did faze her, however, was what he said next.

"I wanted to make a proposition. I would be willing to take care of you, so that you don't have to live in such, poor conditions. For certain services that is." Lucy felt like someone had poured a cold bucket of disgust over her head. Her skin crawled, and she felt her lunch creeping up her throat. "Of course, you would have to live here, and you wouldn't be able to go to parties and the like, that would just be inappropriate." Lucy took a step away from him in disgust.

"I was rather disappointed that you turned down my generous offer seven years ago, but no matter. Of course I couldn't marry you now, what with your financial status but-" Gray stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Lucy's waist protectively. Natsu was frozen to the spot by shock and rage at the Dukes proposition, and didn't realize what was happening at first.

"I'm afraid she won't be taking your offer," Gray said, resting his chin on her shoulder and looking triumphantly at the Duke. Lucy stiffened briefly in his grip, then realized what he was doing, and relaxed into him. _Thank the Lord for Gray Fullbuster,_ she thought, doing her best to arrange her features in a smug expression.

"You see, Lucy's engaged to me, just like she was seven years ago when she turned you down." The Duke's face slackened in shock, and so did Natsu's, but Erza, who caught on almost as quickly as Lucy had, clamped down a hand on Natsu's shoulder to keep him silent.

Lucy leaned her cheek against Gray's and smiled in conformation at the Duke, who spluttered in rage and indignation.

"Well, I must say, I thought that you had higher standards than this, streaker, Lucy," Junelle said. Gray had come in fully clothed, but had somehow managed to lose his shirt on the way between sitting on the couch and wrapping his arms around her. Lucy stooped to pick it up, folding it lovingly and tucking it under her arms.

"Gray is so kind," she said, mocking the voices of the other girls she had known growing up, who were always fawning over one boy or another. "And he's the most powerful wizard I know. Not to mention how _attractive_ he is," She felt her face heat up as she said it, and she could see Gray turning pink as well. She had only added that last bit to hurt the Duke's pride, and didn't regret it, even though it made her sound really shallow.

"Well," Erza said, practically dragging Natsu across the room, "I think we'd better get going." The Duke didn't say another word as they left, he merely stood, in shock, and watched them leave.

"I think we'd better keep pretending until we get out of sight of the manor," Lucy whispered to Gray as they walked down the hall. She was trembling slightly now again. That man was so disgusting and terrifying. "Thank you so much."

"No problem. I wanted to hurt that guys pride just as badly as you did. No one talks to my friends like that and gets away with it." Lucy smiled at him brightly, and then glanced over at Natsu, who was being dragged by Erza.

She had her hand over his mouth that way he wouldn't spoil the whole thing. The poor boy didn't seem to understand that they had been lying, and he was shouting something through Erza's hand, but it was muffled so they couldn't understand what he was saying.

"And seeing Natsu freak out like this was a bonus," Gray said, and Lucy rolled her eyes playfully.

The servants gave them odd looks as they made their way through the hall. They made an odd procession, but Lucy didn't mind. She was still a little shaken up from what had happened with Junelle, but she also felt amazing about the look on his face when Gray announced that they were engaged. They got out of the doors and out of sight of the gate before Erza let Natsu go, and he immediately rounded on Lucy and Gray, who had separated, and were fist bumping to a job well done.

"YOU GUYS ARE ENGAGED?" He cried. Gray and Erza burst out laughing, and Lucy couldn't help but laugh along with them. "YOU NEVER TOLD ME! WHAT'S SO FUNNY? YOU THINK IT'S FUNNY TO KEEP SUCH BUG SECRETS FROM YOUR FRIENDS?"

"No, Natsu," Lucy laughed, " we're not really engaged, Gray just said that to get that disgusting pig off my case."

"What?" He asked, looking confused, "Why would he say that if it's not really true?"

"Because that guy was trying to convince Lucy to be his- ugh it pisses me off to even think about it. I couldn't just let him talk to her like that, and it was the first thing that I thought of."

"Why didn't you just help me beat him up? I would have if Erza wouldn't have grabbed me!"

"Because if anybody deserves to beat up that pig, it's Lucy." Gray said, Lucy laughed.

"Thanks Gray, but I think I'll pass. I can't even stand to be in the same room with him."

"That's understandable," Erza said, shuddering. She was probably thinking about Ichiya when she said it. Suddenly, Lucy had a thought, and she shuddered.

"No one tells Juvia about this. She would kill me." Erza and Natsu laughed, while Gray and Lucy shivered picturing the wrath of Juvia.

"Agreed." Gray said. "But Lucy, why didn't you ever tell us that he wanted you to marry him?"

"We all have skeletons in our closet that we'd rather not talk about, mine just happen to be hidden behind ball gowns. That's a part of my old life, it doesn't matter anymore."

"YOU MEAN YOU WERE ENGAGED TO THAT GUY TOO AND YOU NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT THAT EITHER?" Natsu cried. Lucy shook her head exasperatedly.

"I was never engaged to Gray, remember? And I wasn't really engaged to Duke Junelle, either." Lucy paused, she'd never told anyone about this before, "My father arranged our marriage after I ran away. That's why he sent Phantom Lord after me."

"What a jerk!" Natsu said. Erza punched him in the shoulder, and he winced.

"What the hell was that for?"

"For being tactless! Lucy obviously doesn't want to hear people speak ill of her father, despite their rocky relationship."

"No, it's okay Erza. Everyone suffered at my father's hand, so I have no right to tell them they can't say bad things about him, after what he did." Erza didn't respond to that, she couldn't deny what Lucy was saying, it would be disrespectful and untrue, but she also couldn't confirm it with being rude, so she said nothing.

Natsu seemed a little off for the rest of the mission. He wasn't exactly grumpy, but he wasn't his usual self either. Lucy wondered if he might still be a little upset with her about the whole deal with Junelle. She supposed that she should have told him something as important as her father trying to marry her off, but she had already caused enough trouble to the guild, she hadn't wanted to cause Natsu even more distress.

They ran into Duke Junelle again at the bank where the funds were being transferred. Apparently he hadn't wanted to risk being attacked with his money, so he left the protection of it to them. _Typical,_ Lucy thought, _just like him to be such a coward._ Gray pretended to be her fiancé again, and Natsu left the bank seeming even more peeved than before. Perhaps seeing the Duke just reminded him that he was upset? He wasn't acting mad, and he didn't say anything, but there was just something off. Lucy resolved to apologize to him once they got back home.

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"Hey, Natsu, want to come over to my place?" She asked once he'd been dragged off the train. He perked up immediately.

"Sure, let's go!" He cried, tearing off in the direction of Lucy's house.

"Wow," Lucy commented, "he sure cheered up fast." She followed him at a walk, working out what she was going to say to him once she arrived home. Obviously she would apologize, but how would she do it? It really hadn't been any of Natsu's business that her father had wanted her to marry Duke Junelle, but he _was_ her best friend. She probably should have said something. She would apologize for hurting his feelings, Natsu didn't hold grudges, he would be satisfied with that.

She didn't comment when she walked in to see him reclining comfortably on her couch. She rolled her suitcase next to her dresser to unpack later, and sat down on the couch next to him.

"Natsu," she said, "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings by not telling you that my father wanted me to marry the Duke. I should have told you."

"What are you talking about, Luce?" He asked, giving her a curious look. Lucy returned his look, disarmed.

"Oh, you mean you're not mad?" Natsu shook his head, "Then why have you been acting so weird since we met with Junelle?" Natsu turned away slightly in a gesture Lucy didn't see very often, one that meant that he was hiding something. "What is it?" She prompted.

"I'm not mad." He said,

"Then what's wrong?" Lucy asked, leaning closer to him so she could see his face better. Natsu turned his face back toward her so that they were inches apart. He gazed at her for a moment before responding.

"I didn't like seeing you and Gray like that, together." Lucy's breath caught in her throat, and she felt her heart speed up.

"He liikes you!" Happy chimed in.

"Shut up, Happy," Natsu murmured, then leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. He let his lips linger on hers for a moment before pulling away, his heart pounding. He hadn't expected it to be that hard to pull himself away from her, and he hadn't expected his heart to go insane like it was now.

Lucy was trying very hard to form words, to no avail. Natsu had managed to strike her dumb. She was completely unable to speak, and she had forgotten to breathe. She had been shocked into silence, and even as she was trying to come up with something witty or even any response at all. All she managed to come up with was, "Oh." Natsu chuckled quietly at that, reaching up and tucking a strand of Lucy's hair behind her ear.

"What's so funny?" She asked, managing little of her usual tone.

"You," he said, "'Oh,' what kind of response was that?" He was teasing her now, and it infuriated her. She tried to come up with something good to get him back, and could only think of one thing.

She leaned forward and kissed Natsu hard on the mouth, pressing her chest against his and tangling her hands in his hair. He responded eagerly, kissing her back, and wrapping his arms around her. Lucy kissed him passionately for a few minutes, then pulled away from him, smiling smugly as he said dumbly, "oh."

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 ***A/N- Remember that time that I texted you about writing a NaLu kiss scene and how I'd probably cry or punch a person if they just randomly kissed me like that? Sure you do it was only a few weeks before today (your birthday!) Yes, you got it, that was when I was writing this scene. Happy Birthday my love! I love you!**


	2. I Can Explain

***A/N- Happy birthday again my love, I hope you're happy with this! Just so you know I finished Skeletons and Ball gowns the day I took the ACT (which sucked) but we ended up getting ANOTHER double chapter (which rocked!) (And just so you know it's still that day when I'm writing this A/N and editing this story.) There was a post on tumblr that inspired this one, I can't remember who posted it, or I'd give them credit, but I saw this and just had to write it for you. (This chapter takes place right before the manga chapter "Code Blue.")**

 **Once again, I do not own Fairy Tail.**

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The walls around them began to shake violently, capturing Gray's and Natsu's attention. They stopped fighting to look around, confused.

"Is this dump about to fall on our head, Gray?" Natsu asked. Gray shrugged, looking at his fellow members of Avatar.

"The guild hall is sturdy," He said, looking at Mary, who also shrugged.

"I'll go check it out. Take care of your friends from that failed guild while I'm gone."

"You don't tell me what to do," Gray replied. He turned back to face Natsu, raising his fists, only to find that Natsu was no longer facing him. He was kneeling next to Lucy and asking if she was alright, Gray's guild mate lay on the ground, unconscious. "Don't just walk away from a fight!" Gray cried.

"Shut up!" Natsu snapped, standing, still facing away from Gray. His aura began to swell furiously around him, revealing just how much he had grown stronger in the year that they had been separated. "How could you join these people and leave your friends behind? Your new guild mates hurt Lucy!" He spun on the spot, flames exploding through the air around him, melting the stone floors and ceiling of the Avatar Guild Hall. His eyes glowed a vicious red that Gray remembered seeing only a few times in the past, when Natsu was seriously angry.

"That's none of my concern, you aren't my nakama anymore." He looked at the ground when he said this, his dark eyes shining sadly, but Natsu was too enraged to notice.

The building started to shake once more, and Gray glanced at the ceiling, distracted. All of the sudden, a sound tore through the building that made Gray tremble in fear, and the rest of team Natsu grin in triumph. The battle was won now.

"GRAY FULLBUSTER!" Erza shouted, crashing through the wall. "You had better have a damn good explanation for this!"

Natsu threw his head back and laughed at the look of sheer terror on Gray's face. He gulped, trembling now.

"Um, Erza, I didn't expect to see you here," he said, sounding very nervous. Erza stepped farther into the room, her terrifying form seeming to fill the small space. She was dragging a whimpering Mary by the hair, and threw her on the floor at Gray's feet. "I can explain," he said.

Behind her, it was just possible to make out several forms moving through the dust. Natsu squinted to see who it was, and grinned again when a dust covered Jellal stepped into the light, followed by the rest of Crime Sorciere.

"Hey guys," He said, waving. "Long time no see!"

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 ***A/N- So basically this is my idea of what would have happened if Gray had been working undercover alone instead of with Erza. I just wanted so badly for Erza to burst in and be like, "What the hell, Gray? Prepare to have your ass kicked." Oh well, what happened in canon was pretty great too!**


	3. These Seven Years

p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Jellal sat, staring into the fire, as he always did these days. He hadn't heard Meredy speaking to him. He'd been lost in thought again. Meredy sighed and looked over at Ultear, who merely shrugged. Ever since he'd gotten his memory back, he'd done little else. It's only been a year since then, and Erza's disappearance had taken an enormous toll on him. During the day he would seem fine, he might even crack a joke or two on a particularly good day, but at night he stared into the fire, and called out Erza's name in his sleep. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"As Jellal sat staring into the flames, it wasn't orange he saw, but scarlet. His thoughts often strayed back to the time he'd spent in prison, when he'd somehow heard Erza's voice, and felt a connection with her. Just thinking about it made his heart ache painfully. He missed her terribly. He had never known that it was possible to hurt this badly before in his life. Even in the Tower, he'd managed to scrape up some sort of happiness, before the revolt that is. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He tried to achieve that connection again several times before accepting she would never respond, though he never stopped trying anyway. There had been nothing on her end, nothing at all. He didn't believe her to be dead, he couldn't. There was no way Erza would allow herself to be killed, and waste the life that Simon had given his own to preserve. He refused to believe that she was dead, and so he clung onto his feeble hope that she would return to him one day. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Until then he would work to repent of his sins. He would destroy as many dark guilds as it took, kill as many evil souls as he could, to make up for what he had done. Then maybe, just maybe, when she returned, he would be able to look her in the eyes and tell her how badly he had missed her./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He threw himself into his work, only allowing himself to dwell on this thought in his dreams, for it hurt him to think he might never see her again, or he might never be worthy of her love. Even worse, somehow, was the thought of her coming back and hating him for everything he'd done. He feared that more than anything. He would except it though, and use his suffering as penance. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"For years he worked, growing used to the hollowness and longing that haunted him. As he worked, he grew close with Meredy and Ultear, growing to view them as family more than friends. He managed to carve out the tiniest sliver of happiness with his family, Meredy and Ultear joked and laughed often, and Jellal was even able to laugh and joke alongside them. He was able to forget a little of his pain, day by day, until he was able to breathe again. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Until one day, he was walking beside Meredy in the forest, and he felt her energy ringing across their strange connection. Relief and overwhelming joy encompassed him, and suddenly he was on the ground, sobbing in relief, unable to speak. She was alive, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"alive! /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He could feel her life energy, and it was strong, so strong. Her light was shining through him, making him better just by being exposed to it. He barely registered Ultear and Meredy asking him what was wrong, and he didn't respond, he merely murmured her name, over and over. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Erza. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"They seemed to have figured out what had happened, and began heading in the opposite direction at once, towards Fairy Tail. They knew he would want to go to her, to see her, to know that she was safe. When they found out that Fairy Tail would be participating in the Grand Magic Games, he had an excuse to go to her, but when he found himself face to face with her, he was unable to look her in the eye, until she seized him by the front of his robes and they fell, together. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Her tears caused him immeasurable pain, and when he placed his hands on her cheeks to wipe them away, he found himself unable to remove them. His heart thundered in his chest as he fought back the desire he was feeling. So many times he had dreamed of having her in her arms like this, but he never thought he would have to push her away, not that he was doing that. His limbs were simply refusing to obey his commands. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He stopped breathing when she put her hands on his face, and began to pull him closer. His eyelids fluttered shut despite his orders for them to stay open, and as he pulled her closer, her warmth permeated him, and all his thoughts that said they couldn't be together yet, that he had not yet redeemed himself, were quiet, until the moment when their lips met. Everything in his world exploded into amazing clarity, including the fact that he could not be with Erza, that she walked in the light, and he in the dark, and they could never be together. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He ripped himself away from her, and in the progress he ripped his heart in two. He kept her at arms length and avoided her gaze as he spun her a lie about having a fiance. He knew he'd always been a terrible liar, and he hoped he'd managed to convince her. He felt every fiber of his being protesting it, telling him to pull her close again and hold her and never let her go. He knew he'd be spending an eternity in hell for the dreams he'd had about her, but he could never live them. He stuffed his feelings deep down into the confines of his heart in order to keep the tears from flowing, and he walked away from her that night, somehow less than what he had been before. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"At the Grand Magic Games when they stood together and spoke normally, he found himself to be ridiculously happy. He had never expected to be able to speak with her again in this way, and even if he could not have her as his own, the idea that they could be friends filled him with a great joy. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He took care to stop by and remind her of her strength after Tartaros, to remind her that she would get through the pain. The newly inducted members of his guild had made comments about them just getting together already. Erza smiled, and he wasn't sure if it was because of what they said or what he said, but it didn't matter. She was smiling again, his mission was accomplished. They turned and left again, leaving her standing there by herself. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He never expected to run into her while they were trying to vanquish another dark guild. Apparently she hadn't expected to see him either, because she dropped her guard when she saw him, and she was hit from behind with dark magic. He wasn't quite sure what happened after that, his vision turned the same shade of scarlet as her hair, and he went on a rampage. He would never fully remember the events of that night, only the faint cries of those who fell at his feet, and the slight inkling he was casting a magic circle. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He would have cast the Abyss Break if Meredy hadn't stopped him. She knocked him out and instructed Richard to carry his unconscious body, while she carried Erza. As it turns out, Cobra was good at healing spells and salves, which was ironic, considering the nature of his powers. Jellal woke up a few hours later and refused to leave her bedside for anything. Meredy almost literally had to force food down his throat to get him to eat. Later that night, once everyone was asleep, he took her soft hand in his own and spoke to her in a gentle voice. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Erza, you're strong, you can get through this." He was speaking more to himself than her. He pressed his lips to her knuckles before continuing. "You can pull through. I need you to wake up. I need you to be alright. If you were to die, I would die with you." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Erza's eyelids fluttered, but Jellal didn't see them move in the darkness. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I need you to be alive, because if you die, then everything that I have been working for for all these years will have been for nothing. Erza, I love you, I need you to wake up." A single tear slid down his cheek at these words, and he leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He didn't expect for her to kiss him back, he didn't know that she had woken up, and had been listening to him talk to her. He pulled back slightly to look in her face, and he breathed her name. He didn't expect his heart to leap and dance when he heard her breathe his name. He didn't expect his knees to grow weak and his resolve to shatter as she pulled his face to hers again, and he felt himself pulling her close. He had never known joy before that moment. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He didn't think about how he would regret giving into temptation in the morning, and he didn't think about darkness and light. The only thing he thought about, was Erza. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He tried to leave her the next morning. She told him she had known that he was lying about his fiance the whole time, and that she was having none of this darkness and light business. The rest of his guild told him to shut up and live a little, so he did. He strode across the space between them pulled her into a tight embrace, his lips crashing onto hers. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He decided to listen to his guild mates advice and follow his heart. He loved Erza dearly, and he would deny himself no longer. No matter what happened now, he would not let her go. He refused to be parted with his scarlet haired beauty. No matter what. These coming seven years would be nothing like the last, he would be happy. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/span/p 


	4. Code Blue

***A/N- So, I put a lot of work into ordering these, as I've already told you, but as I'm going through and editing them, they are all so short! I don't suppose that's a bad thing, random cute fluff is good too! I wrote this one based off of our head cannons the week we were waiting for "Code Blue" to come out.**

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 _No!_ Natsu thought. He was reaching out to try and stop the shadow spear from reaching Lucy, no, he was in the Avatar Guildhall, struggling against his bonds as Lucy fell to the floor, under the attack of Avatar Mary.

The shadows slipped through his fingers, hurtling through the air towards Lucy, _no,_ Avatar Mary was laughing maniacally as Lucy writhed on the ground.

The smell of blood filled the air as Future Rogue's attack struck true, hitting Lucy, just not the one from this time. _No,_ Lucy's groans of pain were what was filling the air, not her blood. She stopped struggling against her bonds and collapsed against the floor, no longer moving.

Lucy asked to see her guild mark again, but she didn't have one, the her from the present times obliged, and gasped in horror when she saw that the Future Lucy's guild mark was gone. Future Lucy let out one final, shuddering breath, and collapsed, motionless.

Natsu screamed in rage and anguish, lunging at Future Rogue, _no,_ Mary from Avatar. With another scream he shattered his restraints with brute force, and the air around him exploded. A wave of flames so hot they cracked and melted the stone guild hall around him washed over the room with earth shattering force. Gray tried to put up a shield, but to no avail. It exploded under the force of Natsu's flames, and he and the rest of his Avatar guild mates were knocked back into the walls and fell to the floor, unconscious.

Upon seeing that all of his opponents were no longer a threat, Natsu let go of his anger and rushed to Lucy's side, collapsing on the ground next to her. He pressed his ear to her chest, and immediately burst into tears. Panic filled his heart, he didn't know what to do, he couldn't let her die, not again. He had no idea how to use healing magic to help her. He couldn't lose her, he couldn't. She had to live, she had to.

A sudden force knocked him to the ground, and then Gray was there, pounding on her chest. Natsu leapt at him and shoved him away from Lucy, preparing to attack with everything he had.

"You moron! I'm trying to save her!" Gray's black eyes were desperate and tear filled, and Natsu's panic stricken mind was just clear enough to realize that he didn't understand what was going on. He moved aside to let Gray close to Lucy again, and watched desperately as Gray pounded on her chest again, stopping every so often to breathe into her mouth.

"What are you doing?" Natsu asked. Gray ignored him, except to say, "not now," and continued on with what he was doing.

After a few rounds of this Lucy coughed, and her eyelids fluttered. Natsu sobbed in relief and pushed Gray out of his way again, but this time Gray sat back and let him.

He picked her up and pulled her tightly to his chest. Tears of relief poured out of his eyes, and he made no further effort to stop them. He hadn't watched her die again, he hadn't failed to protect her. She was still alive, and that was all that mattered. Natsu tightened his grip on Lucy and buried his nose in her hair, inhaling her scent. He had always loved it, from the moment they met.

He found it immensely comforting. It calmed him and made his heart race all at the same time. He needed that calming right about now. Her scent was unlike anything he had ever smelt before, it was fire, and ice, and magic, and earth, and love, and life, all wrapped up into one little blonde haired Celestial Mage. Her scent was everything to him, it was part of the reason that he broke into her apartment so often. He liked to have her scent envelop him like a warm hug. He didn't like it when she kicked him in the face for breaking into her house, but it was worth it.

Her scent being marred by the iron of her blood had been immensely traumatic, even if his Lucy lived on. He still had nightmares sometimes about it. But now that didn't matter, because her breath was soft on his neck, and her heart was beating strong. He wouldn't have to avenge her death again.

She stirred in his arms, and a sob of relief escaped him. "You're alive," he muttered.

"Natsu?" She asked. He didn't respond, he merely took another deep breath, still enjoying her scent and allowing it to comfort him "Natsu, are you alright?" He pulled away slightly and nodded, grinning down at her.

"Yea, I am now, just don't ever do that again." Natsu said, stroking Lucy's cheek, and staring down at her, relief written all over his face.

"Are you sure you're alright Natsu?" Lucy asked, reaching out and wiping a tear off his cheek. Natsu laughed wetly and nodded.

"Yea," he said, "I'm fine." On impulse, he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, making her squeak in surprise. He didn't give her time to react, he stood after that, his cheeks turning a faint pink color, and turned to Gray.

"I'll deal with you later," he snarled. Gray's eyes widened in surprise at Natsu's tone. "You just got dropped down on my list of priorities. Now my top priority is burning her," he pointed to Mary, who was stirring faintly, "until there aren't even cinders left."

The air around Natsu exploded. The flames expanded at an alarming rate, so that Gray threw himself in front of Lucy, creating an ice shield. Though, he needn't have bothered, it seemed like Natsu's flames were parting like the Red Sea around Lucy. He was protecting her, even in his rage.

Natsu approached Mary slowly and menacingly as she struggled to get to her feet. Gray stared incredulously at the man he thought he'd known. The Natsu he'd know would never pursue a fight with someone who couldn't defend themselves. He'd never known Natsu to look this angry before. The Natsu he'd known had also been too stupid to realize that he was in love with Lucy. Something must have clicked inside him when he'd seen Lucy almost die.

"Get up," Natsu growled, "and take your punishment. You aren't going to live to regret hurting Lucy." Mary began sweating, whether it was due to the heat from Natsu's flames or nervousness Gray wasn't sure.

He pulled his communication lacrima out of his pocket and dialed Erza.

"Yea, um, I don't even know what to call this one, I guess it would be blue, but Natsu's completely flown off the handle. I'm not sure he even knows what's going on right now, Mary stopped Lucy's heart, no, no, she's fine now, but Natsu's gone crazy. He's completely freaking out right now, he's _melting the guild hall._ Alright, hold on." He held the lacrima out to Lucy.

"It's Erza, she wants to talk to you. It's a miniature communications lacrima, just hold it up to your ear and you'll be able to hear her." Lucy did a she was told, and indeed, Erza's voice emanated from the lacrima.

"Lucy are you alright? Gray said Mary stopped your heart!"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I don't remember much, but I think we might have a problem," she said, watching Natsu glide across the room, looking terrifying.

"Gray said Natsu lost control, what's happening?"

"I think, if my heart really stopped, then he snapped. He got a little like this back when Future Rogue killed the me from the future in front of him. I think he's going to kill Mary of we don't stop him, I've never seen him like this before, not even that time with Future Rogue."

"Lucy, at this point I think you're the only person who can get to him, he won't hear me or Gray." Lucy nodded, then remembered that Erza couldn't see her.

"Alright." She said.

Lucy handed the lacrima back to Gray, who exchanged a few more words with Erza before hanging up. He nodded at Lucy, her cue to go to Natsu and snap him out of the mind consuming rage that had overtaken him. She tried to get to her feet, but her limbs were like lead, and she was feeling lethargic.

"Gray."

"Yea, what is it, Lucy?"

"I can't move."

"Oh."

Gray reached out and scooped Lucy up into his arms, then stood. He approached Natsu, slowly, as to not cause alarm. When they got closer, Lucy spoke to Natsu.

"Natsu," she said, "Natsu, can you hear me?"

"Stay back," he growled, "This girl is going to pay for what she did to you."

"I'm fine," she said gently, directing Gray to walk around slowly, so that they were between Natsu and Mary. "Natsu, I'm alright now, so you need to calm down."

"She tried to kill you," He snarled, "she almost did it."

"Lots of people have tried to kill me," Lucy said, "but you kept your head screwed on straight all of those times, and I need you to do that now, too."

"It was different then," he said, still glaring at Mary, "your heart stopped."

"Well it's working now," she said, placing a hand over it for emphasis. She was still woozy and tired from whatever she had gone through, but she could rest later. Natsu kept glaring over her shoulder at Mary, who was trying to escape from the mound of rubble that she had been buried under. "Natsu, look at me."

He didn't oblige at first, he continued to glare with that insane look of hatred on his face. For several long seconds Lucy thought Natsu was going to ignore her and kill Mary, but then his gaze slid onto her face, and his eyes softened. Lucy tapped Gray on the shoulder, whispering to be let down.

"But you can't stand," he protested.

"Exactly," she replied. Gray shrugged helplessly and set her on her feet.

"Get me closer to him." Gray obliged, still carrying all of her weight. Once they got close enough to touch him, his flames died down with every step they took so that she wouldn't be burned, she released Gray, taking a half step forward. She immediately collapsed, and both men made to catch her, but Gray, understanding what she wanted, backed off, allowing Lucy to fall into Natsu's arms.

"Lucy!" Natsu cried. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," She said tiredly, "just a little tired. It's not every day that your heart stops, you know."

"Yeah," Natsu said. "I know. You really scared me."

"I'm sorry," Lucy said.

"Don't apologize it's not your fault," he nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck briefly before looking up, "it's _hers_ ," he snarled. He glared over at Mary, who had briefly stopped trying to free herself from the rubble to watch the exchange going on in front of her. Now that she was confronted once again with his furious glare, she began frantically trying to free herself again.

"Hey there," Lucy said, "look at me, stay calm." Lucy took his face in her hands and turned it gently towards hers again. A sudden squeal from behind them made them both turn and look. Gray was holding a sword of ice under Mary's chin.

Lucy took Natsu's face in her hands again and pulled him closer, so that their foreheads rested against each others. She stroked his tear stained cheeks soothingly while he gripped her tightly. Lucy allowed him to take his time calming himself down. After a few minutes he opened his eyes again, and smiled.

"I'm glad you're alright," Natsu said.

"Me too," Lucy said.

Just then a wall to their right exploded, and a red haired girl in armor burst through the wall, wielding a sword and glaring furiously.

"You must be Mary," Erza said, "prepare to be punished."

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 ***A/N- Chloe, I hope you liked this. Just so you know I finished this at Emy's house and her dog is sniffing my feet but he's so cute so I'm not yelling at him. Also, I cried, a lot, when I wrote this. You know what a baby I am.**


	5. Book Report

***A/N- Okay, so I know that high school AU's are totally overdone, but who doesn't love a well written one? This collection wouldn't be complete without one, so here it is.**

 **I do not own** _ **Fairy Tail**_ **by Hiro Mashima, or** _ **The Demon King**_ **by Cinda Williams Chima. (Which you HAVE to read, babe. Like, it's the best.)**

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Gajeel stared at the bookshelf, muttering angrily. He didn't understand why the Lit teacher was making him do this, it's not like out in the real world he would be forced to write book reports. What did it matter if he ever picked up a book outside of class? It's not like he didn't know _how_ to read, he did, he just didn't do it when he didn't have to. What was wrong with that?

Grumbling about Lit teachers and book reports, he glanced down at the handout that listed the requirements he had received in class that morning. The book had to be a fiction novel with at least 150 pages, and had to have some form of magic in it. The point of the report was to analyze the magic in the book, and how his life would be different if he had the ability to use that sort of magic. What was the point in that? He pulled a book off the shelf at random and checked the number of pages before scanning the inside flap. A sudden voice from behind him made Gajeel jump, and he spun around to see a short, blue haired girl looking up at him. He looked appraisingly at her, sizing her up. There wasn't much to look at, she was really short, the top of her head barely reached his chest.

"Oh you don't want to get that one," She said. He raised his eyebrows at her, and a slight blush crept onto her face. "I mean, you're getting that for the book report in Makarov's class, right?" She added quickly. He remembered suddenly that she was in his Lit class. She sat in the front row, in the desk right in front of the teacher's podium, and she raised her hand to answer every question that Makarov asked. McGarden, he thought her name was.

"Yea," he said.

"Well, that one's not written very well, I mean, it has a good premise, but it's poorly done, so you'll have a hard time writing a report on it."

"And what would you recommend?" He asked sarcastically. She turned slightly pinker. He had always thought she was cute, but had never spoken with her. He sat in the back corner of the classroom, as far away from the teacher as possible, so their opportunities to speak had been minimal. He had overheard some kids in his class talking about her once. They had said that she was a year younger than him, but she had skipped a grade, and she was valedictorian.

Her gaze slid from his face onto the shelves, and a thoughtful expression crossed her face. She stepped closer to the bookshelf and reached out like she was going to take a book, but then her face lit up with an idea, and she whirled around and dropped to the floor. Gajeel leaned against the bookshelf McGarden selected the book she was after and stood again. She handed him the book, smiling proudly. He looked down at the cover, and found he was surprisingly attracted to the art.

It was a medallion type thing hanging on a chain, decorated by a snake that looked like it was tying itself in knots, and it had glowing ruby eyes. He looked at the text on each side of the image.

" _The Demon King_?" He read aloud, and McGarden grinned.

"It's one of my favorites," she said, "and there are lots of different magics in it, so you can take your pick of which one to write your essay about. I think you'll like it."

"You don't know anything about me," Gajeel pointed out, "how do you know what kind of books I would like?"

"Some books are just so good that nobody can hate them. If you don't like this book, then you've got something seriously wrong with you." She said.

"Well alright then," Gajeel said. He opened to the front flap and began reading it, and the book did seem rather interesting. It was a few moments before he noticed the girl was still there, scanning the titles on the spines of each book critically. Every so often she would pull one out, read the synopsis, and place it back on the shelf.

"What's the matter," he asked teasingly, "can't find a book to do your report on?" She blushed again, and he grinned, she was so cute when she blushed. Well, she was cute anyway, but her blush was particularly cute.

"No," she said, "I actually already wrote my essay, I'm just looking for a book to read."

"What?" Gajeel gaped, "He only assigned the essay during first! How did you manage to write it in an hour?"

"I have aiding second, so I wrote it then." She said, shrugging. Gajeel gaped openly at her.

"What grade do you have in Makarov's class?" He asked, thinking of his own failing grade, and the principal saying he had to find a tutor or one would be appointed to him.

"One hundred," she said proudly. Gajeel felt a light go off in his head, and he grinned.

"The principal told me I have to find a tutor for Makarov's class, or he'd find one for me," Gajeel decided, "Will you do it?" He asked seriously. Levy blinked in surprise, then nodded.

"Sure, I'm glad to help out."

"Awesome, are you busy after school? I don't understand the homework."

"After school today?" She asked, and he nodded, "well I have some club stuff I have to do right after school, but I can meet you at the Java Juice about an hour after school ends."

"Awesome," Gajeel said, "I'll see you there." He left her standing there, staring bewildered after him.

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An hour after school ended, she walked into the Java Juice and looked around, wondering if Gajeel was already there. _Probably not,_ she thought, _he's always late._ She let out a squeak of surprise when she saw him sitting in a corner booth with two foam cups and his Literature textbook sitting on the table in front of him. She walked across the crowded room to him and sat in the seat opposite to him. He slid a cup across the table at her.

"I bought you a drink," he said.

"You don't know anything about me," she said, mimicking him, "how would you know what kind of drink I like?"

"Some drinks are so good that nobody can hate them," he said, playing along. "You'd have to have something seriously wrong with you if you didn't like this drink." Levy giggled in spite of herself, and Gajeel grinned. She took a sip of the drink, and he watched her smugly, waiting to see her reaction. Her eyes widened when she took a sip, and a smirk spread across his face. She set the drink down suspiciously and looked at him.

"How did you know?" She asked, more than a little freaked out.

"Know what?" He asked innocently, his smirk fading into a confused expression.

"How did you know what my favorite drink is?" She asked, and Gajeel blinked.

"You mean it's your favorite?" He asked, seeming genuinely surprised, "I just bought my favorite for both of us, look," he said, sliding his own drink across the table at her. She took a sip of it and found that it was indeed the same flavor as hers.

"Well," she said, "thank you." He nodded and opened his textbook. He turned to the page the homework was on, and then pointed to the first question.

"What does protagonist mean?" He asked. Levy dropped her head onto the table in an exaggerated show of exasperation before answering.

"The protagonist is the main character that drives the action of the story." She told him, and he nodded slowly.

"So who's the protagonist of this story?" He asked.

"You tell me." Gajeel sighed frustratedly.

"Would it be, The old lady?" He asked, and she nodded.

"Okay, so then what's the conflict?" She prompted, and he flipped back to the story and scanned over a couple of paragraphs before looking back up at her.

"Would it be when those guys come to try and make her pay taxes?"

"That's one of them."

"Okay, so I don't understand this question," he said, pointing to the critical thinking question. "What does it mean, make an inference about the ending of the story?"

"The story's ending was a little ambiguous," Levy told him. "That question wants you to say what the ending of the story was trying to say."

"Ambiguous means that it wasn't told directly, right?" Levy nodded. "So how the hell am I supposed to know what happened?"

"Did you even read the whole story?" Levy asked hopelessly, and Gajeel gave her a guilty look. "I didn't think so." She said. "Go back and read the last page again."

Gajeel groaned, but did as she said, and Levy sat sipping her drink while he read. She watched his face to keep track of his place by his reactions, and she couldn't help but grinning at his expression of dawning horror. She laughed when he spluttered out loud.

"You mean she was sleeping in there with the body the whole time?" He asked incredulously. Levy grinned and nodded, enjoying Gajeel's reaction. She had read the story a few summers ago, and remembered her own horrified reaction to the discovery that Miss Emily had killed her lover Homer Barron and slept with the corpse.

"Who thinks this shit up?" Gajeel said indignantly, "this is freaking insane!" Levy giggled at his outrage, and his gaze snapped back to her. She squirmed under the intensity of it.

"What?" She asked.

"What the hell is so funny?"

"Your reaction," she said, "it's funny how you didn't even care enough about it to finish the thing, but once you did, you rage on and on about it. It's ironic is all." Gajeel scoffed at her, and took a dignified sip of his drink.

"Well it was weird is all I'm sayin'," he said. Levy laughed again and nodded.

"It's good though," she said.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked.

"Well it achieved its purpose, it was written like that to get an emotional response from you, and by the looks of it, it succeeded."

"Well of course it did, you read that ending, too! It was crazy!" Levy smiled.

"Yea, it was, I think it's one of my favorites from this unit."

"You're weird." Gajeel said. Levy rolled her eyes playfully and her eyes fell on the book sitting on the edge of the table, it was the one she had given him at the library to read.

"Have you started it yet?" Levy asked, and Gajeel followed her gaze to his copy of _The Demon King._

"Yeah," he responded, "I read the first few pages, but not much more."

"Well if you want to finish it in time to write your book report, then you'll need to read about fifty pages a day." She informed him. His jaw dropped, and he looked horrified.

"Fifty!" He exclaimed, "how the hell am I supposed to find time to read that much every day?"

"Well, you'll get into it once you read it a bit, and you'll probably end up reading more than fifty pages every day and finishing early of you like it."

"Says the girl whose nose is always in a book," Gajeel said, and immediately regretted it. It had come out far meaner sounding than he'd meant it to. Her eyes hardened at his words, and her tone was icy when she spoke.

"At least I know how to read," she snapped, "instead of sitting in the back of the class and sleeping."

Gajeel would have been more offended if it wasn't true. He rarely listened in class, and often slept through lessons. He had deserved the jab about not being able to read as well. He'd sounded like he was making fun of her and he didn't blame her for being offended. He raised his hands in a sign of surrender.

"Alright, alright," he said. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that, I only mean that it's easy for you to say that, because you actually enjoy reading." Levy's expression softened a bit, and Gajeel sighed inwardly. The last thing he needed was to make his tutor angry enough to stop helping him.

"Everyone enjoys reading," she said, in a voice that reminded him very strongly of the librarian, but he didn't say anything. "They just haven't found the right book for them yet."

"Well then maybe this book will be the one that turns me into you." He said, laughing. Levy grinned.

"Maybe." She said.

They sat and talked for about another hour, before they parted ways, promising to meet at the same place and time tomorrow. Levy instructed Gajeel that he was to read at least fifty pages of _The Demon King._ He said he'd try, but wasn't making any promises.

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The next day Levy was running late, for the first time all year. She sprinted in her first block at the last possible minute, and stopped dead when she saw that the seat next to her own, which was usually empty, was filled with a tall black haired boy with lots of piercings. Gajeel. She ignored Makarov's scorning look and sat down in her seat. As Makarov began the lesson Levy tore a corner off her paper and scribbled a note.

 _Why are you sitting here? You never sit up front!_ He read the note and grinned, then scribbled his reply.

 _I thought that I'd learn to read._ He wrote. Levy felt her face burn in shame. She shouldn't have said something so mean to him. She was about to write an apology to him, but he grinned at her in a way that made her think it wasn't necessary. He sat and listened the entire class time. It took Levy a few minutes to recover from the initial shock of having him sit next to her and actually pay attention. She was even more shocked when he followed her into the library after the bell rang.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"I have a free period," he said, "and I thought I'd use it to read." Levy set her things down behind the librarian's desk and sat down at the computer.

She checked books out to students as they came in, and Gajeel sat and read quietly for most of the period, until she began shelving the books that had been turned in, and was carrying a stack of books higher than her head, when a pair of hands lifted half the stack out of her hands, and she was left staring into a wall of black. Her eyes traveled up to Gajeel's face, and he grinned at her.

"You should be more careful," he said, "if you can't see where you're going, then you'll trip and fall."

"Thanks," Levy muttered, pushing past him towards the bookshelves. He followed her, and set his stack of books down next to hers. She grabbed one off the top, glanced at the spine, and disappeared into the bookshelves. She reemerged a few seconds later, grabbed another book, and disappeared into a different pair of shelves.

"How do you do this?" Gajeel asked, picking up a book and looking at it.

"You just shelve it according to the author's last name, if there are other books by the same author you put it with them, and if it's part of a series, then you put the series in order." She took another book and walked into the aisle. This time Gajeel followed her, and watched as she scanned the bookshelves for the correct place. She found what she was looking for and slid the book into an empty space on the shelf. Gajeel looked at it and noticed it had the number three on the base of the spine, and that the two right before it had the numbers one and two.

"And you do all of this work by yourself?" He asked as she walked back to the stack of books. She shook her head.

"No, my best friend aids during this period too, and we usually split the work, but she had to take a makeup test today, so it's just me."

"Who's your best friend?" Gajeel asked, following her back into the stacks. Levy shot him an annoyed glance before sliding a couple books back into their places.

"Lucy Heartfilia," she said, turning and walking away from him. She grabbed a few books that had the same author and disappeared into the next row of shelves.

"You mean the blonde with the big boobs?" Levy scoffed.

"Is that all people ever notice about her?" She asked angrily, "She has a name, and a face, and a personality. She's more than just a pair of boobs, and you'd notice that if you ever bothered to look up." She shoved the books into their spaces on the shelve and stormed past Gajeel back to the table.

She hated it when people objectified Lucy just because of her body. It wasn't Lucy's fault that she had a big chest, and just because of that people often assumed that she was easy or a whore, and they stereotyped her as stupid just because she was blonde. Not that Levy ever had to defend Lucy, who was quite capable of taking care of herself. Levy had once seen her kick someone in the face so hard it broke their jaw because they said the only reason she was salutatorian was that she was cheating off of Levy.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'm sure she's awesome."

"Damn straight." Levy said. Gajeel leaned up against the table and watched Levy walk back and forth, shelving some books and reorganizing others where they had been misplaced.

"Honestly," she complained as she pulled a book off the shelf and turned around to put it in its proper place, "how hard is it to grasp the concept of alphabetical order?" Gajeel picked up a book off the top of the stack and looked down at the spine. He walked into the corresponding section and placed the book along it's brothers and returned to the table to repeat the action.

Levy kept glancing sidelong at him like she thought that he might try to steal a book, or that he might put one in the wrong place. Gajeel wondered what it said about him that her impression of him was that he would stoop as low to steal a book, or be too stupid to manage alphabetical order. They worked silently except for the occasional 'excuse me' or 'sorry' until the final book, by an author with the last name Claire, was shelved. Gajeel checked his watch, there was still about 10 minutes until the bell rang, so he followed Levy over to the librarian's desk and leaned on the edge to watch her work.

She sat down and ignored him, typing something on the computer, but the screen was angled away from him, so he couldn't tell what she was writing. The longer he watched her the pinker she got around the ears and neck. He loved to make her blush because she looked so cute. He also noticed how adorable she looked when she got frustrated with him, so of course he did his best to annoy her all the time. Finally, with a huff, she turned and looked at him.

"Why are you staring at me?" She asked.

"Because you're cute," he answered without hesitation. Her face turned a bright red, and he chuckled. Levy spluttered for a moment before turning back to the computer screen and determinedly not looking at him. When the bell rang she jumped up and practically ran out the door, and away from Gajeel.

She didn't see him again until last period, science, which they also had together. He swaggered in a few seconds before the bell and plopped down into the seat Lucy usually filled. She was late, _again._ She was chronically late to all of her classes, and the teachers only put up with it because her grades were so high.

When the teacher, Professor Bob, walked by their desks he did a double take. Seeing Gajeel sitting on the front row was a shock. He glanced between Levy and Gajeel briefly before speaking.

"Well Mr. Redfox, seeing you in the front row, and awake, is really something. Should I take this to mean that you're going to be paying attention and participating in class today?" He said this in a way that made it clear he in no way expected this to be the case.

Gajeel simply replied, "yes sir." Professor Bob raised his eyebrows, but didn't comment any further.

Lucy rushed in five minutes after the bell, as usual, to Professor Bob's greeting of, "Ah, Miss Heartfilia, how considerate of you to join us."

Lucy didn't respond. She stopped dead when she noticed her usual seat was filled. She looked over at Levy and gave her a look that said _what the hell?_ Levy merely shrugged, _I don't know._ Lucy sat down in the seat behind Levy instead, and a few seconds later she felt her best friend tuck a folded sheet of paper into the neck of her shirt. Levy reached back and pulled it out when the teacher wasn't looking, and opened the note under her desk.

 _What the hell?_ It read. Levy smirked briefly before writing her back. _I don't know, he asked me to tutor him and now he's following me everywhere._ She reached back inconspicuously and dropped the note on Lucy's desk. She heard the rustling of paper and then the scratching of a pencil, a few seconds later she felt the paper being tucked back into her shirt, and she waited for Professor Bob to turn his back before grabbing it.

 _-Does he like you?_

 _I don't know. I don't think so, but he's been staring at me a lot._

 _-He's totally into you, do you like him?_

 _No! Definitely not! He's a jerk!_

 _-Then why is the back of your neck turning red?_

 _Maybe it's because you keep jamming paper in my shirt._

 _-Maybe it's because you like him._

 _I don't like him! He's a jerk!_

 _-I'll bet he's really nice when you get to know him_

 _Just like Natsu is?_ Levy grinned as she dropped the note onto Lucy's desk. Natsu was the guy that Lucy had been crushing on all year, but she never seemed to realize that he was crazy about her too. They had both been too scared to ask the other one out for ages.

- _Actually, yea._

 _What do you mean?!_

 _-Well, he's the reason I was late to class… he asked me out._ Levy barely kept herself from squealing out loud in excitement. She made a high pitched choking sound instead, which she managed to pass off as a sneeze. She saw Gajeel looking at her out of the corner of her eye, but was determinedly not looking at him.

 _Tell me everything!_

 _-Okay so he met me at my locker, and I thought he was going to ask to copy my homework or something, but he asked me out! We are going out to dinner and a movie Saturday._

 _OMG THAT'S AWESOME!_ Levy wrote this in all caps for emphasis.

- _And then he kissed me._

 _HE KISSED YOU?!_

 _-Yea, he did._

 _And you were late to class because you guys were just making out in the hallway this whole time?!_

 _-Pretty much_

 _That's like, the best excuse you've had to be last to class all year._

 _-I know, right?_

 _Was he a good kisser?_

 _-Well that was my first kiss, so I don't have anything to compare it too._

 _Well did he slobber all over your chin?_

 _-Ew, no._

 _Then that's something._

 _-You're disgusting._

Levy hid the note under her thigh as the teacher walked by, eyeing the two of them suspiciously. As soon as he passed Levy took the note back out and scribbled her reply.

 _You love me_

 _-I do_

After that Levy tucked the note away in her book and finished her assignment just as the bell rang. She was still packing up her books as the rest of the class filed out, everyone except for Lucy, and Gajeel. Lucy was giving him the stink eye, but Gajeel met her gaze with a confident half smile. Lucy looked him up and down, sizing him up.

"You have a thing for tall guys," she whispered in Levy's ear.

"I do not!" Levy whispered back angrily.

"Well you like guys who are taller than you."

"Everyone is taller than me!"

Lucy snorted and followed Levy out the door. Gajeel followed behind her, and walked on Levy's other side. When they reached their lockers, Levy and Lucy both pulled out their student government binders, and slammed their lockers at the exact same time.

"I'll see you in an hour, Gajeel," Levy said.

"Later," he called after her.

"What was that all about?" Lucy asked Levy as soon as they turned the corner into the student government hallway.

"I promised I'd meet him an hour after school every day for tutoring," Levy explained.

"When did this happen?" Lucy asked incredulously.

"Yesterday. I tried to call you, but your phone was off." A guilty expression passed across Lucy's face briefly.

"Oh yeah, sorry. It died and I lost the charger."

"Again?" Levy asked. Lucy nodded. They walked into the SGA room and sat down, pulling out their papers. Today they would be discussing club budgeting and money for the upcoming cultural festival.

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An hour later Levy rushed out of the SGA room and ran down the hall to her locker.

"Sorry, Lu!" She cried, "I'm late! I'll call you later!"

She ran down the street, weaving in and out of the crowd. _If there's anything good about being small,_ she thought, _it's that I can squeeze through crowds like this._ She burst through the door to the Java Juice to see Gajeel sitting there with his copy of _The Demon King_ open and two foam cups sitting on the table. She pushed through the crowd, offering quick excuse me's and sorry's to people that she bumped into and plopped down in the seat across from Gajeel and huffed out an apology.

"Sorry I'm late," she said, and he looked up from his book. Levy couldn't help but notice that he was almost halfway done with it. "SGA ran long." She pulled one of the drinks closer to herself and took a sip. Gajeel grinned at her.

"No problem, squirt," he said, "I didn't even notice. This book you gave me is damn good."

"I know, that's why I recommended it," she said. "And I have lots of others if you're interested." She winked at him, and he rolled his eyes. "So which of the magics do you think that you're going to write your report on?"

"I was thinking about Raisa's power of prophecy," Gajeel said, "but I don't know if I could write a whole book report on it."

"I'm sure you could, It's only five hundred words," Levy said. Gajeel looked incredulously at her.

" _Only five hundred?_ I'm not sure I even know that many!"

"Well then it's a good thing you have a beautiful and intelligent tutor to help you out with it!" She said. He gave her a skeptical look that seemed to say, _I don't think even you can get me a good grade on this thing._

"Not one for modesty are we squirt?" He said instead.

"What did you just call me?" She asked, firing up at once. She _hated_ to be called squirt.

"I called you squirt, or were you talking about when I said you weren't modest?"

"No I wasn't talking about you commenting on my _immodesty,_ " she said the word pointedly, "I was talking about when you made fun of my height."

"I wasn't making fun!" He objected, "I was making an observation!"

Levy fumed, her face turning red in anger. What a jerk! She thought, how dare he make fun of her height, when she was helping him, _for free!_ The nerve of some people! She narrowed her eyes at him and began formulating in her mind exactly how she would cause his downfall, when, sensing danger, Gajeel backed down.

"Alright, alright, tell me more about how I'm supposed to manage this essay with five hundred words." Levy took a deep breath and drank from her cup before speaking.

"It's more manageable if you don't think about it as one essay with five hundred words, it's five individual paragraphs of one hundred. You have the intro, three body paragraphs, and conclusion. If you write the three body paragraphs first, then it's easier to write the intro and conclusion. In the intro you set up your essay, and in the conclusion you finish it."

"So what about the three others?" He asked, his mind reeling from the amount of information that she had just dumped on him.

"Well in your case, your first body paragraph would detail how Raisa's power of prophecy affects her life, and in it you could include that she sees the Gray Wolves when she's in danger or at a turning point in her life, as that counts. You could end it with a brief comparison between real life and hers, which would lead into your next paragraph." At some point Gajeel pulled out a paper and pencil and began taking sloppy notes on what she was saying.

"The second body paragraph would be about your average life, and all the times that you screwed up or something because you couldn't see the future. You could even write it as an anecdote, and close out with saying you wish you'd had the power of prophecy then so that things would have turned out differently. That will lead into the final body paragraph where you can detail exactly how your life would have turned out differently if you had her power of prophecy. Be sure to mention the problem with the power of prophecy, that you can never tell if it's a real vision or just your imagination. With all of that in your essay you should have no problem hitting the five hundred word minimum."

Gajeel gaped at her. "Damn," he said, "you really are good." Levy smiled happily and took another drink of her juice. "No wonder you have a perfect score in Makarov's class." Levy just shrugged.

"This sort of thing has always just come naturally to me," she tucked a stray hair behind her headband and smiled, "I've always loved to read."

"I would have started reading too if I had known that it would make me this smart," he said.

"The teachers always told us that people who read for fun had higher GPA's, but you were too busy throwing paper airplanes to notice." Gajeel blanched.

"How did you know that? About the airplanes?" Levy shifted uncomfortably in her seat and looked down at the sweat dripping off her cup.

"Because you were throwing them at me." Gajeel's jaw dropped, and he suddenly remembered a little blue haired girl he had always thought was cute back in middle school that he'd thrown airplanes at to get her to look at him. That must have been right after she moved up into his grade. He wondered briefly why he had forgotten her. Then it hit him that she had started spending all of her free time in the library, and by the next time that they'd had a class together, a few years had gone by, and her memory had faded.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't know that was you." Levy sighed sadly, then perked almost immediately.

"So," she chirped, "did you understand the homework that Makarov assigned?"

Gajeel pulled out said homework, and they spent the next hour answering the unanswered questions and correcting the one's he'd already done. He'd managed to get a few right on his own, and Levy stated proudly that he was improving. She told him to keep up the good work in Lit class, and asked if he had any questions about science.

"Yeah, actually," he said, "what were you and Blondie passing notes about?"

"That's none of your business," Levy said, turning faintly pink. She didn't want him to know that they'd been passing notes about _him,_ at least for a little while.

"C'mon, just tell me!" He prodded.

"That's private," she said, "and I'm not telling you."

"Pretty please?" He asked, with mock sweetness.

"No!" She repeated.

"You're mean!" He said, now exaggeratedly whining.

"Oh shut up," Levy said, "I'm helping you out with your homework aren't I?" Gajeel nodded.

"You're the best tutor I ever had," he said seriously.

"I'm almost positive that I'm the only tutor that you've ever had," she said.

"That's irrelevant." He grinned proudly at his use of the word _irrelevant._

Levy glanced at the time on her phone and jumped to her feet.

"Oh no!" She exclaimed, "I have to be home in half an hour! I promised Mom I would be home for dinner!" She began hurriedly grabbing her things and shoving them into her bag. When she picked up her phone she groaned.

"What?" Gajeel asked.

"I missed the bus! I'll have to walk home, and I'll never make it in time!"

"I can drive you," he offered.

"What?" She said, glancing up from her frantic stuffing of her bag. "You have a car?"

"Yea," he said, "I drove here, so I can drive you home, you just have to tell me where you live."

"That's awesome Gajeel!" She exclaimed, hugging him. Startled, Gajeel didn't react. Apparently surprised by her own actions, Levy stepped back quickly, turning pink. "Thanks!"

Gajeel helped her gather up her things and carried them to his car, a black mustang. It was exactly the kind of car that Levy would have expected him to have. She directed him on the way home, telling him the best ways to avoid traffic to get home quicker. They pulled into her driveway with five minutes to spare, and Levy sighed in relief.

"Thank you so much, Gajeel," she said, opening the car door, "you're a life saver." She winked happily at him and ran up the front steps. She turned around and waved goodbye to him right before she stepped into the house and closed the door behind her.

Gajeel backed out of her driveway and retraced his steps back to the highway. The entire way back to his own house he could hear her laughing, and see the imprint of her in the seat next to him. He could still feel her warmth as she pressed herself close to him for a hug. _What,_ he thought, _have I gotten myself into._

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Two weeks later, the due date for the book report was fast approaching, and Gajeel was halfway into the second book in the series Levy had gotten him started on. They were working for a few minutes every day on his essay. Levy had made him write it on his own first, following the instructions that she had given him, and now they were reviewing it. It wouldn't have taken so long, except that she wasn't really editing his paper, she was telling him what was wrong with it and making him fix it himself. Sometimes it took several tries and a few pointers from Levy. She was determined not only to get him a good grade on his book report, but to teach him how to make good grades on all of his future essay's as well.

Gajeel had continued sitting next to her in the front row, and she even heard that he'd started sitting closer to the front in his other classes. Not quite in the front row, but more in the middle. He was spending his free block with her and Lucy in the library, and insisted on being taught how to check books in and out, as well as how he was supposed to shelve the Dewey Decimal books. Lucy insisted that it was because he had a crush on Levy and was making excuses to be around her. Levy wasn't so sure. Part of her thought that Gajeel was just doing it all to irritate her.

He sat in her usual chair and tried repeatedly to check books out, but he couldn't get the scanner to work. Levy leaned over the back of the chair and placed her hand above his on the scanner. She pulled the trigger and tilted the laser slightly upward, and the computer made a bell sound.

"You're good to go," she told the student after stamping his book with the due date.

Gajeel turned his head and grinned at her, and with a jolt she realized how close they were. When she had reached out to help him with the scanner she had unintentionally pressed her chest against his shoulder, and the length of her arm was pressed against hers, and she hadn't moved when she'd stamped the due date on the kids book. Their faces were mere inches apart. Levy could feel his breath brushing against her cheeks.

She stood up suddenly and turned away from him, her face burning. She pulled out the book drop box and began picking up and stacking the books to be checked in. He stood and helped her, standing a little closer than was necessary. Every time one of them reached down to get a book her shoulders would brush against his chest. She felt little sparks of electricity every time that they touched, but she ignored them.

The next day was the due date of the book reports, and they were doing some last minute editing before printing it out.

"No, no, Gajeel," she scolded, "You can't use second person pronouns in an essay like this!"

"What's second person again?" He asked, and she hit him in the shoulder.

"It pronouns like 'you," you can't use them in essays!"

"Why not?" He asked.

"Because it sounds bad and unprofessional and you will get points counted off for it." Gajeel deleted the word and changed the sentence around so it sounded better.

"How's this?"

"Well I'm not going to write it for you, but this looks pretty good, except," she said, and Gajeel rolled his eyes, "don't start off your conclusion with 'in conclusion' come up with something else."

"Like what?" Gajeel asked.

"I don't know, it's your essay," She said.

"Oh come on," he said, "you always have ideas about this sort of stuff!" Levy shook her head stubbornly. "Please, squirt," he said. "I'll buy you a juice at Java Juice!"

"You do that every day," Levy pointed out.

"Then I'll buy you a dessert to!" Gajeel said.

"Well I can't say no to a dessert!" Levy replied. "Try starting off like this, 'there are many different kinds of magic, but prophecy is the one that I'd most like to have,' and then tell why, summarizing your essay so far."

"You are a genius," he told her.

"I know," she said.

After school they went to the Java Juice, and Gajeel bought her a dessert. He somehow managed to "forget" his books, and then refused to go back and get them, saying that it was time to celebrate the completion of his essay anyway. Levy rolled her eyes. They chatted for a while, laughing and smiling, and Levy slapped his hand with a fork when he tried to steal a bite of her brownie. He gave her an affronted look, and she laughed, pinching off a small piece and handing it to him. He ate it with great dignity.

Gajeel stalled just long enough for Levy to miss the bus, so he would have an excuse to drive her home again. Even while he was doing it he wondered why, and if he was being wise. He was going out of his way to spend time with this girl, and he wasn't even sure if she returned his feelings. He thought she might, hoped she did. On the way home she chattered excitedly about a new book she had started, and how good it was, and how he just _had_ to read it. He smiled, saying he'd add it to the already substantial list that she had given him.

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The day that the essays were handed back was a day of great anticipation and nerves in their duo. Lucy didn't have Makarov's class that semester, so it was just Gajeel and Levy waiting for their papers, while Lucy had a report in history she was working on. Makarov handed back the papers, laying them all face down, all except Gajeel's, which he kept.

"Gajeel, I would like to discuss the grade on your paper after class."

Gajeel turned and gave Levy a frightened look. Levy stared wide eyed back at him. He couldn't possibly have failed, could he? No, it wasn't possible. She'd helped him write that paper, there was no way he could have failed. Suddenly, her perfect score on her paper didn't seem so good. Maybe she didn't do enough for him? Perhaps she should have given him more guidance, and less advice? She found it impossible to focus on the lesson for the rest of class, and she waited anxiously outside the door for him after the bell rang. He walked out of the door looking dazed.

"So?" She asked anxiously, "What did you make?" Gajeel handed her the paper wordlessly, and she steeled herself before looking at the grade. She almost dropped it in shock when she looked at the grade marked in red at the top.

"Eighty-five?" She whispered, sweet, sweet relief flooding over her. Gajeel looked at her and a grin spread across his face.

Suddenly their books were on the ground and Gajeel was hoisting her above his head and spinning her, laughing and grinning. Levy squealed and wrapped her arms around his neck. Makarov had asked him after class to _praise_ him not scold him. Gajeel lowered Levy so their chests were pressed together and she was sitting on his arm. His smile faded slightly as he gazed up at her, feeling his heart pounding. Slowly, he reached his head up and pressed his lips against hers.

He felt her intake of breath, and the pulse in her neck quicken. His own heart spiked when her hands tangled in his hair and she pressed herself closer to him. He wrapped his spare arm around her back and slid his hand into her hair. A sudden voice to their right caused them to break apart.

"Move along kids, this isn't the time or place for that." Gajeel had to disagree, now seemed like the _perfect_ time and place for it, but he didn't argue. He merely set Levy back on her feet and crouched to pick up his books.

Levy snatched her books off the ground, face as red as a tomato, and practically ran down the hall to the library. Gajeel followed her, feeling his own face heat up. She opened the door to the library and set her things down next to Lucy's. Gajeel did the same, and wrapped his arms around her waist. She turned in his grip, and Gajeel caught her mouth in a kiss. Levy briefly considered pushing him off, she could hear Lucy's sounds of shock, but she decided against it. She was enjoying herself too much. After a few minutes Lucy chirped a warning that the librarian was returning, and Gajeel sat down at his usual table, and Levy fled to the bathroom to hide.

She was quickly followed by Lucy, who gave her a conspiratorial smirk as soon as the door closed. Levy sighed and leaned her hip against the edge of the sink, preparing to give a full account of what had happened between her and Gajeel.

"Spill." Levy sighed, and told the shortest version of the story, promising to call her later that night, when the librarian wasn't waiting on them to shelve books. Lucy seemed satisfied for the time being, and they left the bathroom together, checking in books and carrying them over to the shelves to put them away.

After a few minutes Gajeel stood and helped them shelve the books, and they were done quickly. Not very many people came in, so they had a lot of spare time to sit and talk, which Lucy utilized to give Gajeel, "the best friend test," as she called it. She asked him questions about his family, his grade point average, what he planned on doing once he graduated, and even what his favorite breakfast food was. Some of the questions Levy understood, after all, what he planned on doing with his life was relevant, but asking him if his second toe was longer than his big toe was weird. It wasn't, by the way, Gajeel had average toes it would seem.

Lucy seemed to approve of Gajeel, and she said as much to him. Levy groaned inwardly, that would only serve to blow up his ego even more. Lucy took the liberty of planning a dinner at Levy's house, inviting herself, Gajeel, and Natsu. It went over nicely, Natsu was actually really nice, and Levy wasted no time in returning the favor of giving him her own "best friend" test. Natsu had normal toes as well, but his favorite food was mashed potatoes, which Levy thought was weird. She didn't have anything against them, but _favorite_ food?

They ended up planning another double date that night for the following weekend. It seemed that Lucy and Levy's dynamic duo had been increased to a fearsome foursome, but Levy had always said, the more the Merrier.

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 ***A/N- Ugh, this is the one I finished last, actually. I was at my sister's college graduation when I finished it, but you knew that already!**


	6. Lost Time

***A/N- Because no collection of Fairy Tail fanfics is complete without a tearful NaLu. For those of you who have watched/ read Inuyasha, yes, this one was inspired heavily by that one fight with that guy who made Inuyasha and Kagome cry tears of blood (in the Final Act). I suppose that means I should state now that I don't own Inuyasha either. I don't own Inuyasha!**

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"Oh how delightfully sorrowful!" The demon cried, taking Lucy by surprise. She had been in the middle of fighting a demon from the book of Zeref that someone in Avatar had conjured when he'd taken a step back and burst into delighted laughter.

"What's that?" Lucy asked warily, aware that the demon was probably just trying to mess with her head. Meanwhile, Natsu blocked the punch that his opponent had tried to surprise him with while he was watching Lucy's fight. With a flick of his wrist he sent the black mage flying, knocking down several other members of Avatar's guild on the way.

"Your heart, my dear," the demon said pompously. "I must say, it's one of the most sorrowful I've tasted in decades."

"Tasted?" Lucy asked quizzically, deciding to disregard the comment about her 'sorrow.' She could see Natsu giving her a strange look, and she didn't want to get into that whole deal right now. "How can you taste my heart?"

"Pardon my rudeness, my name is Dolor, and I was created by Master Zeref with the ability to taste the deepest sorrows of one's heart on the air, and I must say, yours is quite delectable."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lucy said, glancing at Natsu, who was still giving her the strange look. "I don't have any sorrows."

"Delightful!" Dolor cried. "I do love the silent sufferers, their pain is especially sweet." A long forked tongue flicked out of his mouth and into the air. Lucy grimaced, disgusted. Dolor's eyes widened due to some unknown factor, and he smiled devilishly.

"Oh me, oh my," he said, "what do we have here? It seems that _this_ one is the cause to your suffering," he turned to Natsu and raised his eyebrows. Natsu blinked in surprise. "But not all of it, so it would seem, you also seem to have lost someone dear to you."

"That's enough!" Lucy cried, she lashed out wildly with her whip, but Dolar merely sidestepped the thoughtless attack.

"I see I've struck a nerve with you, young girl? Who was it that you lost? A parent? A friend? A lover?"

"Shut up!" Lucy attacked again with her whip. This time, her aim was true, and the whip collided with Dolar's head, however, he didn't even flinch.

"Oh silly girl, you cannot defeat me! Your sadness gives me strength, and your refusal to admit your pain is like a refreshing glass of water on a cold day."

"Stop tryna' mess with Lucy's head!" Natsu cried, propelling himself at Dolar, who flicked his tongue out again, and laughed maniacally. He turned suddenly when Natsu was almost upon him, and slammed the side of his hand down on the back of Natsu's neck, knocking him onto the ground.

"Natsu!" Lucy cried.

"How delightful! This one is suffering in silence as well! This must be a gift from the great Lord Zeref!" Dolar turned his face to the sky as if praying, and Lucy took that opportunity to attack.

The blow struck cleanly in his stomach, and successfully knocked the wind out of him. Dolar was knocked off his feet and flew several feet through the air before landing with a solid _thud._ Lucy cheered, preparing to finish him off, when he pushed to his feet again. He coughed, and blood sprayed out of his mouth, a sign that Lucy's blow had done some real damage to him.

"You little wench, how dare you attack me when I am praising my Lord Zeref!" Lucy shrugged as if to say that she didn't care, and he scowled.

"You will pay for that, witch."

"You're not going to touch a hair on Lucy's head, you monster," Natsu said, pushing himself up off the ground.

"Ah, the lad who lost his father rejoins the fray. How wonderful, I get to devour both of you, together. And what a treat, _abandonment,_ " he accented the word heavily, as if he knew exactly what the word did to Lucy. She flinched, and Dolar laughed again. Natsu stiffened and turned to face Lucy.

 _Abandonment?_ He thought. The look on Lucy's face told Natsu that the demon had hit the mark, but who had abandoned Lucy? It couldn't have been _him_ , could it?

"It truly is my favorite of all the sorrows. So bitter and consuming. So satisfying, the insecurities left by being abandoned, the self doubt, the grief. _Delicious,_ " Dolar said.

His hand jerked out suddenly, and shot a curse straight at the unsuspecting Natsu, who was still watching Lucy carefully as she tried valiantly to keep her emotions off of her face.

"Natsu!" She cried, reaching for him, but her muscles froze, and she could no longer move.

"Now now," Dolar said, "I can't enjoy my meal of your suffering if you keep moving around."

He approached Lucy, his face a mask of eagerness and hunger. I could see Natsu struggling against his spell, but he was having little luck. Lucy struggled against her bonds fruitlessly, the enchantment was simply too strong for her, it was binding her magic. The closer that Dolar got to Lucy, the easier it was to see the desperation and rage on Natsu's face. He screamed in outrage as Dolar stepped so close to Lucy that she could feel his breath on her neck, and flicked out his coiled tongue to lick her face. Lucy squeaked in protest and disgust, but he merely laughed in delight.

"Oh, the taste of you is even better from here! How _horrible_ ," he said sarcastically, "you're actually _in love_ with the one who abandoned you. I couldn't taste it on you from all the way over there, but," he looked over at Natsu, "the smell of it is all over him. Not that I needed to taste _that_ on the air, it's written all over his face."

Despite her grim circumstances, Lucy couldn't help but feel embarrassed and shocked at what Dolar had just revealed. Her face heated up, and she avoided Natsu's gaze, instead choosing to glare at Dolar. His tongue flicked out again and raked down her face.

"Leave her alone!" Natsu screamed, struggling violently with his own curse.

"You're right, you're right, I should save the best for last. Her pain _is_ much more delicious then yours anyway." He reached out and almost lovingly tapped her forehead. Lucy gasped, then screamed. Her knees collapsed, and she fell to the ground, sobbing.

"LUCY!" Natsu bellowed, breaking his curse in his rage, but it was too late. Dolar touched Natsu's forehead, and sent him into his own personal hell.

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"Natsu, I need you to get that book and destroy it," Igneel said.

"What's in it for me?" Natsu asked. "I'm in a guild now, so it's not like I'd do it for free."

"Why you little!" Igneel exclaimed, "Fine, I'll answer everything you want me to if you do it!"

"Deal!" Natsu said.

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"You have to summon the Celestial Spirit King!" Aquarius said, "I'm sure you're powerful enough to do it!"

"I don't have his key!" Lucy replied.

"The Celestial Spirit King's key isn't something solid like that, it's more abstract, you have to make a sacrificial summoning."

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"I'll take on Acnologia, you go and get that book!"

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"You have to break my key, it's the only way."

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Igneel plummeted to the ground, his body broken, clutching Acnologia's leg in his mouth.

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"Do you want to save your friends or not?"

"But you're one of my friends to, I can't sacrifice one friend to save the rest!"

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"Igneel, there are still things I wanted to share with you!"

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"Open, Gate of the Spirit King!"

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"Remember what I taught you to do when your hurt? That's it, stand up, son."

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"Thank you."

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Dolar stood back, drinking in all of the sorrow that was pouring off of these two in waves. He had really lucked out, finding two people so hopelessly broken, and lovers too! How wonderful. Their pain was as sweet as syrup to him. He threw his head back, reveling in the sorrow. However, the taste of the pain in the air started changing. Dolar stood up straight again and looked over at the two of them. Both of their eyes were still pouring tears, but they were now exuding hope and strength.

"How is this possible? How can they both be resisting my spell? Their despair should be holding them fast! How can both of them be this strong?" He watched unbelievingly as their tears dried, and the air around the blonde began to glow.

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"I have to be strong, for Igneel."

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"I can cry later, but now my friends need me to fight!"

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"This isn't over! I'll become stronger to protect everyone!"

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Dolar gazed around, alarmed, as the air around him filled with large masses that resembled stars. He recognized the magic, _but how?_ How was the girl casting this spell from inside her nightmare?

"Eighty-eight stars of the Heavens, SHINE! Urano Metria!"

Lucy threw back her head and flung her arms out wide, just as Natsu succeeded in breaking through his own spell. He opened his eyes just in time to watch Lucy finish casting the ultimate spell of the stars, and totally obliterate Dolar. The stars plummeted through the air, pummeling Dolar, and sending him flying.

Natsu looked over wonderingly at Lucy, who stood, looking fierce in different clothing than she had been before. It was a bikini top with zig zag lines on it, and a ruffled skirt that was higher on one end than the other. Most notable about her costume change, however, was the tattoo that graced her chest, it looked exactly like the one that Aquarius had. Lucy raised a hand and wiped the tears off of her cheeks and turned to Natsu.

"Lucy, that was awesome! You look like Aquarius! Is she here," he asked, looking around, "I thought you could only summon her when there was water around."

"What are you talking about? Why would you say that?" Lucy asked. She gave Natsu a hurt look and turned away. "We have a job to do, lets finish off the last of this army."

Natsu raised his eyebrows at Lucy's strange antics, then shrugged. She was right, they had to finish battling this army quick. He would ask her why she was acting so weird after they were done here.

As Lucy took down opponent after opponent with her water attacks, she remembered that in the week after Tartarus, Natsu secluded himself, so he didn't know about what happened to Aquarius. She resolved to apologize for snapping at him and explain what happened. Maybe. She wasn't sure if she could get through the story without breaking down. She could always summon Loke and make _him_ tell the story. It's not like he hadn't been dealing with her crying about it this whole year anyway.

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"I never knew, Lucy, I'm so sorry." Natsu said, pulling her in for a hug. It was the day after the battle, and Lucy had just finished telling him about her experience during the battle with Tartarus.

"It's okay," Lucy said. "I'm fine now, just a little lonely. I miss her." Just then a memory clicked in Natsu's mind, and he felt like throwing up.

 _Abandonment issues are my favorite._

"Oh, Lucy," he said. _I was the one who abandoned her, and when she needed me the most. I can't believe this._ "I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault, I had to save everyone," she sniffed.

"No, I'm sorry for leaving you like that, I should have checked on you before I left. I left you all alone when you needed me. I'm so sorry." Lucy lifted her head and gazed into his eyes. Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks.

"You left, I was so lonely. Natsu, you left me alone." Her voice cracked, and with it the dam that had been holding back her emotions broke with it. She broke down sobbing, and Natsu pulled her closer holding her tightly.

"I'm so sorry."

"I missed you so much."

"I missed you too. I just wanted to get stronger so I never had to lose anyone again, but I never would have left if I had known what it would do to you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." There weren't words to describe how much remorse he was feeling right now. He regretted ever leaving Lucy, he regretted not checking on her in the week before he left, he regretted not saying goodbye in person.

"It's alright, Natsu," Lucy said, although it didn't seem alright to him. "You had just lost your father. You were dealing with your own stuff, it wasn't your job to fix me."

"But that's what friends do, they help each other, and I let you down. I'm sorry."

"It's alright. You didn't let me down, Natsu. It wasn't your fault."

"I should have checked to see if you were okay."

"It's alright, Natsu. I forgive you." Natsu buried his face in her hair, taking in her scent that he had missed so much in the year they'd been apart. All of a sudden, another memory clicked in Natsu's mind. Something that Dolar said.

 _I couldn't taste it from all the way over there, but I can taste it now. You're in love with him, and I don't even need to taste the air to know that boy loves you, it's written all over his face._

Lucy had blushed furiously when he'd said it, so did that mean it was true? Despite being in grave danger, he couldn't stop his heart from leaping in hope. He had wanted to tell her himself, if the time was ever right, but she hadn't mentioned it to him. Should he bring it up now? What would she do? Maybe it was a bad time, because she was so upset, but maybe it would take her mind off of everything that had happened in the last year.

"Umm," he began, "about what Dolar said." Lucy interrupted him.

"Look, I don't care what he said, It's not your fault that I'm hurting, alright? So stop blaming yourself."

"Not that," Natsu said, "It's something else." Lucy looked quizzically up at him for a moment, like she was trying to remember what he was talking about. She turned faintly pink and her eyes widened.

"What do you mean?" Her voice betrayed her, it was obvious that she knew what he was talking about. Natsu struggled with how best to phrase what he wanted to say, but kept drawing a blank. How should he phrase it? Would she be offended if he said something wrong? He didn't know the rules for this sort of thing.

An idea struck him, and in the spur of the moment he made a decision. He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. He heard her squeak of surprise and felt her muscles stiffen, but then she relaxed and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his head closer to hers. Natsu's thoughts were muddied and distracted, but he managed to form the coherent thought, _that went well._

They stood together, kissing, hugging, talking, laughing, and crying for some time, making up for lost time.

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 ***A/N- Chloe, remember Friday when I kept texting you and saying "I'm not crying I'm not crying I'm not crying I'm not crying"? Well 1- that was a lie and 2- I was writing this fic. Your welcome for the feels.**


	7. Wizard Saint Fernandez

***A/N- Since it's your birthday and I quite possibly made you cry with that angsty Jerza (I know I made myself cry), I'll give you some cute fluff to make you smile. Happy birthday My Love!**

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"Erza," Jellal said, holding a scroll out to her. "This authorization form needs your signature by the end of the day." She looked up at the scroll that he was trying to hand her and sighed.

"I haven't had time to read it yet!" She took it from him and pulled it open, scanning the contents.

"And whose fault is that?" He scolded, putting down his own paperwork and looking across their desks at her. "I told you not to put it off until the last minute."

Their office in the Magic Council Building was cluttered with things both of them should be doing. Neither of them were particularly neat, and their lives were very busy nowadays. Ever since Erza had been appointed Makarov's position amongst the Ten Wizard Saints, and began serving her duties on the Magic Council, her life had been an endless string of meetings and paperwork. One of the first things she had done was to use her influence to obtain pardons for all of Jellal's guild, and make Jellal her personal assistant. He had declined at first, but then she'd made it clear he had no choice in the matter, and eventually he accepted it.

"I've been busy with other things," she told him.

"I told you that you needed to read it a week ago!" He sighed, exasperated.

"What is it?" She asked, looking more closely at the scroll.

"It's suggestions for revising the power structure amongst the Magic Council's enforcement squads."

"Did you read the whole thing?" She asked, and he nodded. She handed the scroll back to him. "Make what revisions you think necessary and give it back to me to sign." Jellal sighed and sat back down at his desk.

"You have to read it, Erza. I can't keep doing your job for you, you know!"

"Why not?" Erza asked, not looking up from what she was doing. "You do have more experience than me as a member of the Magic Council. I've only been serving for a year now, you were on it for much longer than that." Jellal rolled his eyes.

"It's been seven years since then, maybe I've forgotten everything."

"You did forget everything," Erza said, "and then you remembered it all." She smiled jovially at him, and then turned serious. "I trust your judgment." Jellal smiled in spite of himself and began reviewing the scroll. After about an hour he stood again and handed it back to her. Erza didn't bother looking at the writing before she signed her name to the bottom.

 _Erza Fernandez._

"What time is it?" She asked, handing her husband the scroll back. He checked the clock on his desk.

"It's twelve thirty." Erza set down her pen and stood, stretching.

"Let's go get some lunch," She said. As she walked to the door she requipped from her council robes and into a sleeveless white shirt that revealed Fairy Tail emblem, that had remained in place this entire year.

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 ***A/N- Nobody can tell me that this didn't happen. This is my ultimate head canon, and even though by the time I post this it will be disproved, until that moment no one can tell me that Erza Fernandez is not working on the Magic Council with her husband and personal assistant, Jellal. If it did/does happen, I'll probably cry, and if it doesn't/didn't I'll probably cry then too. (Also, it hasn't been specifically stated that Erza's name** _ **isn't**_ **Fernandez, so I'm still holding out hope.)**


	8. Bookshelves and Barred Doors

***A/N- And now for the grand finale, the only one of these that you actually requested. Your Gajevy cop AU, enjoy.**

 **Happy Birthday Chloe, I sincerely hope that you enjoyed all of these stories.**

 **(I do not own Fairy Tail)**

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Detective Redfox turned his up his collar to protect his neck from the wind and rain, grumbling under his breath.

"What was that partner?" Lilly asked. He didn't look up, particularly, just over, his partner was the same height as himself, and rather undeserving of the nickname 'Lily.'

Detective Redfox stood at an imposing 6'2", but he wasn't sure about his partners exact height. However, with large muscles, and a wicked looking crescent scar running from his eyebrow to his eye that stood out, pale, against his dark skin, he looked like someone that you didn't want to mess with. His full name was Pantherlily, but preferred to be called Lily. Of course Detective Redfox himself didn't look like a fairy princess. His mass of dark black hair stayed slicked back from his forehead, revealing lines of circular metal disks where his eyebrows should be, and along each side of his nose. The higher ups had given him hell about them, saying that he couldn't work as a cop until he had them removed.

He came back, smirking at the police chief, with a doctor's note, saying that the disks couldn't be removed, that they had become attached to him, somehow. The chief asked him how he got them, and Redfox had made up some story about getting drunk and waking up with them. Chief hadn't liked that, but had hired him because of his outstanding performance on the detective exam.

"What does Chief think he's playing at, dispatching us on some stupid breaking and entering charge?" He ranted.

"Gajeel," Lily said, but Gajeel didn't stop talking.

"And it's not even someplace interesting, like a mansion, or secret society headquarters. It's a _library._ " Gajeel spat the word out like it tasted bad, and Lily snorted. "Who cares if someone took a bunch of books, all they're good for is burnin'."

"Books are food for the mind, Gajeel," Lily said.

Gajeel merely rolled his eyes. Trust his partner to be a book loving sissy.

"But seriously," Gajeel continued, and Lily rolled his eyes. "Chief should have put us on the Lahar murder, not this stupid burglary."

"Did you ever stop to consider that the Chief is punishing you for your behavior on that last case?" Lily suggested, infuriatingly calm.

"Whaddya mean, punishing me? I didn't do anything wrong!"

"You beat the suspect into unconsciousness, Gajeel."

"He was only out for a few seconds, and besides, he deserved it, he was resisting arrest, and he was being arrested for child abuse!" Gajeel exclaimed, aggravated.

"It doesn't matter if he deserved it, there are rules against that. That suspect could sue the station for Police brutality." Gajeel scoffed, but didn't reply. Lily and Gajeel were quiet for the rest of the drive to the library.

When they got out of the car in the library parking lot, it was still raining, and they could hear a loud, irregular thumping coming from inside the library. Gajeel and Lily gave each other a puzzled look. They walked up to the door, which had a hand drawn 'closed for the day' sign taped to it. Gajeel winced at the bright colors, stupid little winky face, and flowers, and opened the door.

"Hello?" Lily called, "Miss McGarden?"

"I'm back here," a chipper voice called. They followed the sound of the girl's voice and the strange thumping sounds around a corner and down a few aisles of books, and turned one last corner to see a petite girl with pastel blue hair standing on a ladder, hammering boards over a broken window.

"Oi!" Gajeel exclaimed, startling the girl. She jumped so hard that the ladder she was using, which was rickety and had several books slid underneath the legs to make it more even fell out from underneath her.

She fell backwards and into the bookshelf behind her, and it leaned precariously like it was going to topple into the one next to it, which would cause a catastrophic domino effect. Without thinking, Gajeel ran into the gap between the bookcases, and grabbed the shelf, trying to steady it, but the shelves weren't attached, and they came away in his hands, sending the shelf, and all of its books, crashing down on him, and the shelf behind him, and that one knocked down the next one.

"Gajeel!" Lily shouted, digging through the books, and pulling Gajeel out of the pile of books and splintered wood.

"I'm fine, but what about the pipsqueak?" Gajeel asked. Pantherlily dropped him unceremoniously back onto the pile of books and lumber, and went to check on the McGarden girl.

"Excuse me, Miss?" He said, nudging her shoulder gently. She groaned, and opened her eyes.

"Levy," she said, and Lily blinked.

"What?"

"My name is Levy, call me that," she ordered. Lily nodded.

"Hello Levy, my name is Lily, are you feeling alright?"

"You don't look like a Lily," she said frankly. She took hold of the hand that Lily offered her and stood, brushing herself off.

"My full name is Pantherlily, Detective Pantherlily," he said, and her eyes widened.

"Oh you must be here about the break in!" She said. Lily nodded.

"What the hell do you think that you're doing?" Gajeel snapped irritatedly, extricating himself from the rubble.

"Um," Levy said, seeming unsure of what he meant. "I'm talking to your partner, what're you doing?"

"I mean the boards, Squirt, you're messing with the evidence!" She looked back at the broken window where the rain was coming in.

"Oh no!" She said, and, at first, Gajeel thought she was upset about tampering with a crime scene, but instead she started snatching up books and gathering them in her arms.

"Well don't just stand there!" She exclaimed, thrusting the few books she had managed to gather in her tiny hands into Lily's arms. "Help me get these books out of the rain!"

"Excuse me?" Gajeel said indignantly, while Lily stood obediently in place, allowing the runt to stack books higher and higher in his arms.

"It's your fault the shelves fell, because you scared me and made me fall, so you have to help me get them out of the way of the rain, or I'll bill you for all of them!" She paused in her frantic book gathering to give him a stern, hands-on-hip look, and then started to stack books in Lily's arms again. When she had stacked the books higher than her head, (which only came up to Lily's chest), she ordered him to take the books to her desk, then gave him directions to get there.

Gajeel gave Lily an incredulous look, and he merely shrugged, as if to say, "she's right" or, "might as well help." So, rolling his eyes Gajeel started to grab books off the floor next to him, but the tiny librarian snapped at him.

"Not those!"

"What's the difference?" Gajeel asked exasperatedly.

"You have to pick up the ones closest to the window before they get ruined!" Gajeel rolled his eyes again and walked over to the window, picking up books that were laying in the wet, or near the wet. "And if you find one that's already wet, lay it out on my desk open, so the pages will dry."

"Yea, yea, I got it," Gajeel said, piling books up in his arms, and following the directions that the girl had given Lily. He passed Lily on the way back, and Lily grinned at his exasperated expression.

When Gajeel made it to the desk he set the books down, then set about looking for ones that were wet, and laying them open on the desk. While he was doing this, he noticed an oscillating fan sitting in a corner. He retrieved it and pointed it at the desk, then plugged it in, hoping that it would help the books dry faster. He didn't want to pay for them. He walked back down the aisles of books, and passed Lily again, who was laden down with even more books.

"Did she tell you to open the ones that were wet?" Gajeel asked him.

"Yea, she did." Gajeel turned the corner to see that the girl was putting the books in stacks away from the windows for him, so he picked one up and turned around.

"Wait," she said, and Gajeel stopped and put the books back down. "Let your partner do that, you help me get all the books away from the window so they don't get ruined."

Gajeel obliged, walking to where the girl was and grabbing a few books and tossing them in the direction of the piles. She slapped his arm, surprisingly hard. She was strong for such a small girl.

"What?" Gajeel asked.

"Don't throw them!" She said, "The pages will tear."

"Who cares?" Gajeel asked. "They're just books, what does it matter?" That, apparently, had been the wrong thing to say.

She glared up at him, and her small form swelled with rage.

"I care!" She snapped, never ceasing her movement. She began picking up books and thrusting them roughly at Gajeel. "These books are my job, I spend my life looking after them, and I don't plan on letting an ignorant detective ruin them!"

Gajeel stood, dumbstruck, until she snapped at him to keep moving or get out, and he obliged. He'd never met a girl so small with so much attitude. He kept looking her way as he moved books out of the rain, watching her jerky, angry movements. So she was still upset about his comment. Things were getting a little awkward in the silence, so he decided to break it.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, no would you stop acting so mad?" He said, and she looked surprised. She nodded mutely at him, and went back to work. Lily came back and picked up another stack of books.

"Gajeel, ask her some questions while you do that."

"R-right." Detective Redfox replied, wondering why he hadn't thought of that sooner. "Where were you the night of the robbery?"

"I was here all day long, but I left an hour after closing time, so it must've happened sometime after nine." Levy said.

"Was anything taken?" Gajeel asked.

"Just the donation jar and the library fee lock box. I was going to take both of those too the bank today, so whoever it was either knew that, or got really lucky."

"How much was in the boxes?"

"I'm not sure about the donation jar," she began, "I was going to count it today, but the lock box had somewhere around one hundred dollars in it."

"Why do you have so much money on hand in a library anyway?" Gajeel asked, unable to fathom what she could need it for. Library's didn't charge you to check out books.

"They were late fees and library card registration fees." She told him, like it was obvious.

"Why do you even need to charge late fees?" Gajeel asked. He had never understood that.

"Well, one, it's just about the only way to encourage people to bring their books back on time. This is a public library, so one person can't keep the same book forever, because the other patrons might want to check it out too."

"What do you do with the library fee's then?" He asked.

"Buy more books, duh." She said. Gajeel rolled his eyes again. He should have seen that one coming.

They were finished moving the books around the window relatively quickly, with all three of them helping. There were still books and shelves piled on the floor, but they weren't in any immediate danger of being ruined. The girl stood with her hands on her hips, looking helplessly across the mess, her expression morose to say the least.

"Oh man, I'll have to keep the library closed all month to clean up this mess," she sighed and approached a fallen bookshelf, picking at a splintering corner. "And if I can't fix these I'll have to hire someone to do it or order new ones. I'll have to cancel the new shipment of books I ordered to fit that in my budget." Gajeel looked at her, feeling bad. It _had_ been sort of his fault. He was about to offer to board up the window for her when his partner spoke up for him.

"You know, my partner is off tomorrow," Lily offered, "he could swing by and help you clean up." Gajeel shot Lily a poison look, and was about to contradict him, when he saw the squirt's face light up, and he couldn't bring himself to take what Lily said back. "I'll board up the window," Lily said.

"What time do you think that you'll be here in the morning?" Lily asked as he nailed the boards into the wall.

"Oh I'll have to get here bright and early to fix this mess. I'll probably get here around seven."

"Okay," He said, and Gajeel groaned inwardly. "Gajeel will be here at seven on the dot, won't you?" Detective Redfox mumbled something under his breath, but his partner just laughed.

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"Why the hell did you volunteer me for that?" Gajeel asked, as soon as they were in their car and pulling onto the road.

"I saw the way you looked at that girl, Gajeel, I know you like her." Gajeel choked in shock.

"W-what the hell do you mean, like her? I don't even remember her name!"

"Levy," Lily stated. "Levy McGarden."

"Whatever, and what makes you think I liked that runt?"

"Like I said, it's the way you were looking at her."

"And how was that?" Gajeel asked, now recovered from his shock enough to be sarcastic and snide again.

"Every time she said something to you, you looked, I don't know the word for it, dumbstruck, maybe?" Pantherlily guessed. Gajeel scoffed obnoxiously at that, but he didn't have a good response.

"Look, if you really don't want to go," Pantherlily began, "Then call her and cancel. We have her number on the police report."

"What the hell kind of man would I be if I wrecked the place and then didn't help her fix it?" Gajeel said angrily. He wasn't sure why he was so upset. He _could_ call and cancel, but the idea of doing that annoyed him for some reason.

Pantherlily didn't speak again for the rest of the ride back to the precinct, letting his partner stew in his thoughts. Redfox stared straight ahead at the road, but his mind was in the library with that tiny librarian.

"To young," He said suddenly.

"What was that, partner?" Lily asked.

"She's too young anyway, there's no way she can be that small and be a grown up. I'll bet her mother owns the library." Pantherlily shook his head.

"She's in her 20's, just like you. In fact, I think that you're close to the same age."

"You're kidding, that squirt is 20?" Gajeel asked incredulously. Pantherlily nodded.

"She's just the right age for you, Gajeel, and I think she likes you too," he said.

"I don't like her!" Gajeel exclaimed. Lily chuckled, and Gajeel realized that he was being teased. "Shut up."

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"Damn it!" Detective Redfox cried, slammed the paperwork he was supposed to be filling out about the library robbery onto the desk.

"Distracted, Gajeel?" Lily asked smugly.

"Would you shut it, Lily?" Gajeel snapped, getting to his feet and walking to the coffee machine. He yanked a foam cup out of the dispenser and slammed it down next to the pot and poured himself a cup. He took a large gulp and leaned against the counter, staring into his coffee broodingly.

"What's the matter, Gaj-eey?" He looked up from his coffee to see Juvia standing in front of him, looking concerned.

"Would you stop calling me that, Juvia? I'm a grown man."

"A grown man that I call Gaj-eey." Redfox scoffed.

"Whatever."

"What's bothering you, Gaj-eey?" She repeated.

"I'm just frustrated because Chief sent me on that stupid library case as punishment for beating up that perp, and I knocked over some bookshelves, so Lily volunteered me to go and help her fix them tomorrow, because it's my day off."

"Her?"

"Yea, the librarian was this short little blue-haired girl."

"Was she pretty" Juvia asked.

"W-what the hell's that got to do with anything?"

"You have your girl trouble face on."

"I do not have a girl trouble face!" Gajeel said angrily.

"You do so, it's the one you're wearing right now," Juvia said, with irritating calmness.

"I am not!" Gajeel spluttered.

"Alright, alright," Juvia said, walking back to her desk. She called over her shoulder, "Tell her I said 'hi'!"

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At Seven o'clock the next morning Detective Redfox pulled into the library parking lot to see that the girl, Levy's, car was already parked in the spot labeled, "Reserved for Levy McGarden, Librarian." When he got out of the car and walked up to the door, the sign that was there yesterday had been taken down in favor of another, equally bright, that read "Closed until further notice, leave due books in the drop box ;)." The door wasn't locked, though.

"Um, Miss McGarden?" He called.

"I'm back here!" He followed the sound of her voice back into the section he'd managed to destroy. He found her struggling to lift a bookshelf up off some books, but the shelf was too heavy for her by a long shot.

"What do you think you're doing? You're going to hurt yourself," Gajeel scolded, reaching down to pick up the book shelf. Levy jumped when he spoke, but didn't say anything. She just stooped down and snatched a few books off of the ground. Gajeel set the book shelf back down and looked around.

He could tell that she had been working in the room for a while, the empty space around the window had grown slightly, and a path had been cleared of all debris from the aisle to the window, but little progress had been made. He looked back down at the McGarden girl, taking in her appearance. Her rumpled t-shirt read "I like big books and I cannot lie", and her pastel blue hair was tucked behind a colorful headband. She was barefoot, which Gajeel thought was dangerous, because there were splinters of wood all over the carpet.

"You shouldn't be walking barefoot with splinters all over the floor, you could hurt yourself." The girl raised her eyebrows at him.

"Do you always scold people before saying hello? I don't even know your first name, and you're telling me what to do!"

"Well you did the same to me yesterday," He said, surprised.

"But it's your fault that I'm in this mess, so that doesn't count. Plus, this is my library, so you're in my jurisdiction." Taken aback, Gajeel didn't know how to respond to that, so he stuck out his hand.

"My name's Redfox. Gajeel Redfox," he added, when the librarian raised her eyebrows.

"Hi, Gajeel Redfox, my name is Levy McGarden," she said brightly. She extended her small hand and shook his, which dwarfed hers in comparison.

"Hello," Gajeel said stupidly.

"So let's get to work then!" Levy chirped.

They spent the next few hours toting books back and forth, talking and getting to know each other, and, before long, Detective Redfox found himself having fun. He was talking and laughing with her, joking and teasing. He almost forgot that he had only just met her.

"Why do you love books so much?" He asked, after she finished giving him an in depth explanation of one of her favorites that had been on the ground.

"Because each book is its own little world," She said, picking up one and holding it up so he could see. He peered at the cover skeptically, but Levy didn't seem to notice. She was caught up in her speech. "It has its own people living in it, and all of those people have their own thoughts and feelings. Each world has its own problems, their own wars, disasters, and in them you can experience things you could never have experienced before, in ways that are impossible in the world we live in!" She grinned at Gajeel, and did a blissful little spin that made Gajeel smile.

Before he knew it, it was late in the night, and Levy was yawing every few words. He wondered if she would be alright to drive home, but she said she had a futon in the back room, a change of clothes in her car, and she could shower in the morning at the gym. He was at the door now, saying he would stop by after work tomorrow, and then he was driving home, wondering what on earth had come over him. The next day at work, he was unusually chipper. His normal manner was brooding and dark, so the half smile that graced his lips turned multiple heads.

"You seem happy," Juvia said.

"What do you mean?" Gajeel asked, taking a sip of his coffee. He turned his chair to face her better, and she leaned against her hip against the edge of his desk.

"Your smile looks genuine, you don't look angry, or bummed out. You just look happy."

"I've been happy before, why do you need to point it out this time?" Gajeel asked.

"You just seem different."

"How?"

"It's in your stance, you don't seem quite so brooding."

"I'm never brooding!" Gajeel said indignantly. He glanced behind Juvia's back at his partner, who nodded.

"You're always brooding, Gajeel." Gajeel rolled his eyes and got back to work. They'd had no leads on the library robbery, there was no physical evidence at the scene, and Levy didn't have any cameras. Gajeel had been pushing her to buy some, but she'd insisted the money she'd have to spend on a security system would be better spent on books and shelves for her library.

He didn't like the idea of her sleeping alone in a library, with only a few locked doors for protection. Someone could break in while she was there and hurt her and no one would know until someone bothered to check on her. He was going to insist that she get a security system for the library if she was going to sleep there, even if he had to pay for it out of his own pocket.

 _Wow_ , he thought, _where did that come from?_ When did he start caring so much for this girl that he was willing to pay out of pocket to feel like she was protected. He had hardly known her for two days, although he felt like he had known her for much longer. There was something about her that made him feel at ease.

That evening when he walked through the door, the smell of glue hit him like a wall. He followed his keen nose to the source, and found Levy gluing broken pieces of bookshelf together. Her hair was coming out from its place behind her headband, and her brows were furrowed in concentration.

"You know you'll need something stronger to hold that together." Levy jumped violently at the sound of his voice, and dropped the piece of bookshelf and bottle of glue on the floor.

"Gajeel!" She gasped, placing a hand on her chest, "I didn't hear you come in!"

Gajeel sat down next to her, and picked up the shelf and glue, examining them.

"If you're going to try and glue these shelves together, you need to use wood glue."

"Well I didn't have wood glue!" Levy said. Gajeel looked over at her, and her lips broke into a grin. Gajeel smiled back at her. "How was work?" Gajeel rolled his eyes.

"It was fine, the same boring paperwork as usual."

"The chief is still punishing you then?" She leaned toward him slightly, looking sympathetic. Suddenly, Gajeel realized how close they were. Their faces were inches apart, so close that if he just turned his head, he could kiss her.

Not for the first time that week, Gajeel wondered where that thought had come from. Certainly he wasn't developing feelings for this girl. He couldn't be, he'd barely known her for a week, and yet, he'd found himself telling her things, things that he never told anyone, and he found himself thinking about her all the time. Perhaps he was falling for the runt. She placed her hand on his shoulder, and fire shot through his shoulder into his stomach.

"Gajeel?" She said. He'd gotten so wrapped up in his thoughts that he'd forgotten to answer her.

"Yea," he said, but his voice sounded strange to his own ears. "He is."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," he said, the words coming out of his mouth on their own. He was as surprised as she was at what came out of his mouth next. "I got to meet you because of it."

Her eyes widened slightly, and he heard her intake of breath. He looked over at her, and noticed the slight part of her lips. He acted on impulse, closing the space between them in a heartbeat and pressing his lips against hers. He felt her take a breath of shock, then sigh. His heart hammered as she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her body into his. He wrapped his arms around her miniscule frame, tangling one hand in her short hair, and pressing the other one into her back. They stayed that way, lips locked and bodies entwined, until a voice from the next room snapped them out of their reverie.

"Gajeel, Levy, I brought pizza!" It was Pantherlily, Gajeel had forgotten that he'd said he was going to stop by after work today. Gajeel and Levy hurriedly disentangled themselves from each other and got to their feet.

Lily walked in and stopped when he saw them standing together, faces flushed. One glance at Gajeel told him everything he needed to know. His usually slicked back hair had fallen forward like someone had been running their hands through it, and there was lip-gloss smeared on his mouth.

"Levy, can you go and get us some plates?" Lily asked. She nodded and rushed out of the room. Lily pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to Gajeel. "You have lip-gloss on your mouth. That color suits you," he teased. Gajeel swore and snatched the handkerchief out of his hand, wiping his mouth furiously.

"Was it flavored?" Lily asked, grinning evilly. Gajeel felt the blood rush into his face, and he scowled. "Well?" Lily prompted, and Gajeel glared daggers at Lily. He threw the handkerchief at Lily's face as he responded.

"Strawberry," Gajeel snarled. Lily chuckled.

"Sexy."

"Shut up." Levy came back into the room, holding a stack of plates and a couple of canned Cokes.

"I cleared off a table for us," she said, motioning them to follow, they did.

When they got to the table, Lily sat down pointedly across from Levy, so that Gajeel could sit beside her. He didn't bring up the state they were in when he entered, to spare Levy the embarrassment. They sat and talked for about an hour, then got back to work.

With Lily's help Gajeel was able to set all of the bookshelves upright, and they repaired the broken shelves on the first one with the hammer and nails that Lily had thought to bring. By the time they finished that, it was late at night, and Lily was waving goodbye.

Gajeel waited outside under the awning while Levy locked the front door, and when she turned around, he pulled her into a crushing embrace. With a grin, he swept down to press his lips against hers, glad that they wouldn't be having any interruptions this time.

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 ***A/N- TADAA! Wasn't that fun? I'm so glad it's over now though, so I can have more time to work on NEND. I was sort of panicking, thinking that I wouldn't have time to finish this, but yay! I did! Happy Birthday, love! Have fun being let loose in Hot Topic as your birthday gift from your mom, (also that's so awesome.)**


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